Copper


Who Knows Where the Time Goes?

Issue 73Opening Salvo

Welcome to Copper #73! While the saying, "days drag, years fly by" is annoying---it does seem to be true. Welcome to December: notable for three issues of Copper! ...and, oh, some holidays. For...

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50 Ways to Read a Record Part 8

Issue 73VINTAGE WHINE

In earlier installments of this series, we’ve focused upon the various types of phono cartridges—pickup cartridges, if you prefer. Though wildly different in their internal construction, all these cartridges have...

5400 Hours of Fun, Part 2

Issue 73IN MY ROOM

[Ken Fritz has abilities and ambition that put most of us to shame. Ken decided to build his own speakers—and the listening room for them. As you’ll see, he did...

Tom Fine: New Mercury Living Presence Analog Re...

Issue 73THE COPPER INTERVIEW

[Tom Fine is a second-generation audio engineer, specializing in mastering and analog-to-digital transfers. The son of audiophile pioneers C. Robert and Wilma Cozart Fine, he grew up steeped in music...

Monster and Sonos: Back in the News

Issue 73INDUSTRY NEWS

Some companies seem to have a hard time staying out of the news: think Gibson, Sears, and Monster Products—which most of us still think of as Monster Cable. We last looked at the bumpy ride of...

Early Music in the Bay Area: Sackbuts and Crumh...

Issue 73FEATURED

It’s well-known for its fog, iconic bridge, wineries, redwood forests, and cable cars. It’s also known to early music enthusiasts as a world-class early music research center, for being home...

Bessie Smith Part 2

Issue 73MUSIC TO MY EARS

I am always interested in transitory events whether they be political, biographical, or musical. The emergence of the blues as first a song form and eventually an art form is...

Stand Back

Issue 73HAND PICKED

January 29th is not JUST my Mum’s birthday, it’s also the day, in 1983, that Stevie Nicks and then husband Kim Anderson were making their way up the PCH to...

Heart

Issue 73MUSIC'AL NOTES

I am awake. Not a slow-opening-of-my-eyes awake. More a slap-in-the-face awake. My eyes open wide and I see the nurse standing over me. A few days before this, I had...

Food, Wine, and Advice

Issue 73MUSIC'AL NOTES

One. When I moved to Manhattan in the mid-seventies things were not expensive, but I was almost always penniless. My wife, a student at Parsons School of Design, worked part-time...

Dylan, The Beatles, Mick Jagger, The Fugs, and ...

Issue 73TWISTED SYSTEMS

If I titled this story “The Strange Life & Times of Richard Alderson,” chances are: a)  My readers wouldn’t be too excited b)  You probably wouldn’t read past the title,...

Information

Issue 73QUIBBLES AND BITS

6: “What do you want?” 2: “Information.” 6: “You won’t get it.” 2: “By hook or by crook, we will.” 6: “Who are you?” 2: “The new number 2. You...

Immaterial Science

Issue 73THE AUDIO CYNIC

Back in Copper #66, I wrote a Cynic column entitled “Nothing New Under the Sun?“—and judging from the comments on that article, my point was either unclear, elusive, or misunderstood. I’m about to comment...

Silence Isn’t Silent, Redux

Issue 73MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Let me tell you about Bernie Leadon. Bernie came to some notice in the late ’60s, as a member, first, of Dillard & Clark, and then of The Flying Burrito Brothers. And...

Collaborators

Issue 73TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

Nearly all the great creative musicians were good collaborators. It obviously worked for George Frideric Handel (1685–175). Eccentric country squire Charles Jennens (1700–1773) wrote several libretti for him; Handel set them...