Copper


Goodbye to Jeff

Issue 180Opening Salvo

Sadly, we’ve lost a lot of great artists, but this one hit particularly hard for a lot of us: Jeff Beck passed away on January 10, 2023 at the age...

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Decisions, Decisions

Issue 180Audio Anthropology

Here are a few stunning shots of a Barber & Howard stereo integrated amplifier, and tuner. We could find almost nothing about this brand online – the company was founded...

Around the World In 80 Lathes, Part 30

Issue 180Revolutions Per Minute

Having pretty much completed our journey around the world in 80 lathes (or perhaps a bit more than 80, but anyway), today we will be visiting The Netherlands, not to...

Capital Audiofest 2022: Up Close and Personal, ...

Issue 180Show Report

My wife, Nancy Burlan, editor and reporter for Mac Edition Radio, asked me: “should we attend the Capital Audiofest this year.?” That was back in July 2022. It seemed like...

Jeff Beck: In Memoriam

Issue 180Twisted Systems

No, there is no cute way to begin this one. There is no “another one bites the dust.” Not even a “somewhere over the rainbow.” I just don’t have it...

Stephen Stills’ Manassas: An Album, A Band, A W...

Issue 180Wayne's Words

I came to praise Manassas, or Manassas, but now I’m not so sure. It seemed like a good idea a few weeks ago, when a streaming link to this Stephen...

Octave Records Debuts The Art of Hi-Fi Series w...

Issue 180Octave Pitch

PS Audio’s Octave Records’ has introduced an all-new series called The Art of Hi-Fi. Each recording in the ongoing series will showcase a different aspect of high-quality audio reproduction, beginning...

Checking Out xDuoo's Affordable MT-604 Headphon...

Issue 180From the Listening Chair

Earlier this year, I received a sample of xDuoo’s MT-604 fully-balanced tube headphone amplifier from online retailer Apos Audio. At an asking price of $169, it offers more sexiness per...

Celebrating the Linn Sondek LP12 Turntable, Par...

Issue 180Natural Born Kessler

Ken Kessler recounts anecdotes from the LP12’s heyday to create an impressionistic picture of the scene in the 1980s. For those who “weren’t there” – that is, living in the...

Back to Analog – Academy Award-Winning Songwrit...

Issue 180The Copper Interview

“(I’ve Had) The Time of My Life” was the Billboard Number 1 Hot 100 hit single from the 1987 Dirty Dancing soundtrack album, one of the biggest selling (over 32...

Ryan Hamilton: A Wicked Cool Rocker

Issue 180Disciples of Sound

When Huey Lewis and The News sang “the heart of rock n roll is still beating” back in 1984, rock was arguably in its strongest position ever. FM rock radio...

Lounging with In-Ear Monitors, Part One

Issue 180From the Sweet Spot

If one of the greatest limitations to getting good stereo sound is the dominating effect of your room’s sonic and tonal personality, then what might be a better way of...

Home Entertainment Formats Over the Past 50 Yea...

Issue 180Featured

Technological advances in the 1970s brought unprecedented conveniences for consumer home entertainment that continues a half century later in the digital age. Further examination of the machinations that ultimately gave...

Dig This: Philadelphia’s Vibrant Vinyl Scene

Issue 180Featured

I spent a lot of time in Philadelphia when I was a graduate student at Rutgers University. It was an easy trip from New Brunswick, New Jersey to central Philly...

Talking With Producer/Musician Butch Vig of Gar...

Issue 180Idle Chatter

It's safe to say that the landscape of alternative music would be wildly different without the efforts of producer, engineer, and drummer Butch Vig. In the 1980s, Vig positioned himself...

Miles and Miles, Part Two

Issue 180True-Life Rock Tales

My thinking was that since I made it from NY to Chicago on Wednesday then I could make it to Denver on Thursday. Only a thousand or so miles, slightly...

Daft Punk: They Were the Robots

Issue 180Off the Charts

When Thomas Bangalter and Guy-Manuel de Homem-Christo were in high school in Paris in 1992, they started a band called Darlin’. It was a guitar-based indie trio with a friend...

Exploring CTI Records, Part 2: The Subsidiaries

Issue 180Featured

CTI Records had been an independent label for only a year when Creed Taylor began creating subsidiary labels. While a couple of these subsidiaries were very limited, the Kudu label...

Bach’s St. Matthew Passion: New Interpretations...

Issue 180Something Old / Something New

There have been some great creative duos in music history. The pairing of Mozart and librettist Lorenzo Da Ponte justifiably gets a lot of attention – they wrote Don Giovanni,...

Highway 61 Revisited — And a New Beginning In t...

Issue 180To Be Determined

I have a long history with the Charleston, South Carolina area, beginning when my high school best friend Steve’s dad bought a fixer-upper 35-foot sailboat and had it towed to...

Lord Knows I Try

Issue 180Parting Shot

Photographed in Manhattan on 15th Street between Second and Third Avenue.