Copper


Light Up the Sky

Issue 122Opening Salvo

The music world has lost an icon with the passing of Eddie Van Halen at 65. The man was one of the greatest and most influential rock guitarists of all...

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Tube Tester

Issue 122AUDIO ANTHROPOLOGY

I’m afraid to even turn this thing on. Jennings Model J-1005 high voltage voltmeter.   A true classic and recommended reading for anyone into vacuum tubes.   A classic of...

Little Esther: Long Days With the Diva

Issue 122TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

It’s 1977 and we are waiting on Doheny Drive in Beverly Hills for talent manager Irene Pinn when her partner Jim Kellem (one of the two Jims who I worked...

Close Encounter With The Rolling Stones

Issue 122SITTING IN

As music lovers, we all have our most favorite concert experiences. A lot goes into deciding which shows were the best, including the venue, the sound, the seat location, and,...

Neil Young and Phil Baker’s To Feel the Music

Issue 122BOOK REVIEW

To Feel the Music: A Songwriter’s Mission to Save High-Quality Audio, by Neil Young and Phil Baker  Many if not most Copper readers are audiophiles, and one can safely presume we’re all music...

The Legacy of Eddie Van Halen

Issue 122TWISTED SYSTEMS

There are millions of guitar players. There are thousands of really good guitar players. There are hundreds of really great guitar players. And then there is an elite group very...

Val and Eddie, Amy and Tom Revisited

Issue 122FEATURED

Note: this article originally appeared in Copper Issue 74. In light of Eddie Van Halen’s passing, we felt it appropriate to run it again here in tribute, updated and with an added...

How Loud Is a Record?

Issue 122REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

n this article, I shall attempt to shed light on an often misunderstood concept: loudness. Let us begin from the very basics. Three folks are playing a tenor sax, a...

Dame Ethel Smyth: Knight of the Musical Realm

Issue 122SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

In 1922, when she became the first female composer ever to be knighted by the British crown, Dame Ethel Smyth (1858-1944) solidified a reputation she’d fought for her whole career....

Reflections on Echo & the Bunnymen

Issue 122OFF THE CHARTS

When his Liverpool-based band called the Crucial Three broke up in 1978, singer Ian McCulloch formed a trio with guitarist Will Sergeant and Les Pattinson on bass. Echo & the...

Above These Badlands

Issue 122PARTING SHOT

Badlands National Park, South Dakota, July 2019. The nearby town of Wall is known for Wall Drug, more of a tourist gift shop than drugstore. Taken with a Sony A77-II...

Two Violas and a Cello

Issue 122TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

Dear Reader, Hi there! Yes, I’m back from a self-imposed sabbatical. Wish I could say it cleared my head, sharpened my hearing, lifted my spirits. Probably did, a little. But...

Three Great New Records...and Waters Can Still ...

Issue 122TO BE DETERMINED

Roger Waters – Us + Them Us + Them documents Roger Waters’ recently released concert film of the same name; it offers highlights from the 2017 – 2018 Us + Them tour. There was a...

Crate-Digging for MP3s? No Joke

Issue 122WAYNE'S WORDS

Like many of us, I’ve been looking for bargain records, new or used, at record stores, highway antique shops, second hand emporiums, dilapidated book depositories and surprisingly well-organized Goodwill buildings...

Gayle Sanders of Eikon and MartinLogan, Part Two

Issue 122FRANKLY SPEAKING

In Part One, Gayle talked about his formative years in audio and the founding of electrostatic loudspeaker company MartinLogan...and left us with a cliffhanger as all of the company’s CLS...

Giraffes and Whipped Cream Return: Frank Zappa

Issue 122MUSIC TO MY EARS

This article originally appeared in Issue 18. We decided to run it again, in edited and updated form, as a prelude to WL’s upcoming review of the new movie, ZAPPA, to be...

A Talk With Walter Schofield of Krell Industries

Issue 122THE COPPER INTERVIEW

Well-known industry veteran Walter Schofield has been part of the audio community for over 40 years, having worked at leading manufacturers such as Linn, the Harman Specialty Group, SVS, and...

John, Paul, George, Ringo and Irving

Issue 122FEATURED

Irving Bieler was one step away from joining the Swinging Sixties. He was standing in front of the Music Box on South Main Street in Fall River, Massachusetts. He had...

An Assortment of Favorite Demo Recordings

Issue 122FEATURED

Many audiophile magazines and internet sites compile lists of what they consider definitive demonstration recordings that every audiophile should own, or at least use religiously when auditioning equipment. I rarely...

Sunset Marquis: When Bob Met Bruce

Issue 122DEEP DIVE

I was talking with singer/songwriter Ryan Hamilton the other day about his thoughts on the music of the 1970s and early 1980s. A celebrated musician within the world of Americana, Hamilton has...

An Olympian Experience

Issue 122SITTING IN

I. It was the Sunday after Thanksgiving in 2016. My phone rang. “Hi, this is Robert. Have you heard of the VOX Olympian?” Robert started his career working for Mark...

Dude Ranch

Issue 122MUSIC'AL NOTESweb-2517

“Great recovery Roy,” yelled the wrangler as I tightly pulled back on the reins of my horse whose front legs had collapsed on the steep downward slope. This happened on...