Copper


With Age Comes Wisdom

Issue 136Opening Salvo

I was hanging at the assisted living facility and an elderly Puerto Rican woman came up to me and said, “wisdom is wasted on the old!” In this issue: Anne...

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Marc Ribler: Musical Director and Solo Artist E...

Issue 136DISCIPLES OF SOUND

The late Joe Guercio was the musical director and conductor for Elvis Presley from the summer of 1970 until the summer of 1977 when Elvis made his last concert appearance....

Van Morrison’s Latest Record Project, Volume 1

Issue 136WAYNE'S WORDS

Van Morrison’s new album is Latest Record Project, Volume 1 (LRPVI). That sounds generic, sure, but after 41 other albums, I guess one might run out of titles. The music is plentiful...

Octave Records Releases Audiophile Masters, Vol...

Issue 136OCTAVE PITCH

Octave Records has just released its first compilation album, Audiophile Masters, Volume 1. The hybrid stereo SACD disc features 10 new and previously-released tracks by a variety of Octave Records and other artists...

A Perspective on Streaming Services

Issue 136STREAMING SESSIONS

If you use the Internet to listen to music and you are, or aspire to be an audio enthusiast, you probably know about music streaming services like TIDAL, Qobuz, Spotify,...

Engineer/Producer Tom Newman: From Virgin Recor...

Issue 136THE COPPER INTERVIEW

The birth of Virgin Records, the recording of Mike Oldfield’s landmark Tubular Bells, and a whole new approach to granting recording artists time out of the city to compose with creative...

Dreaming...of Effortless DSD Streaming!

Issue 136TO BE DETERMINED

Last issue I wrote about finally figuring out how to break through the seemingly impenetrable barriers of the SACD format in order to rip the DSD layer, to enable relatively...

The Newport / JVC Jazz Festival and “Technomania”

Issue 136TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

It was 1996 when Bob Guccione was watching The Cable Doctor Show when he purportedly said, “I like that guy; let’s hire him to do tech stuff for Penthouse.” Penthouse editor Peter Block...

The Jimi Hendrix Experience: The Other Two Guys

Issue 136SITTING IN

The rock music biz has had its fair share of power trios, mostly consisting of a front man on lead guitar and vocals, accompanied by a bass guitarist and drummer....

Cliff Chenfeld: From Razor & Tie to Kidz Bop an...

Issue 136FRANKLY SPEAKING

We are proud to have Cliff Chenfeld as a Copper contributor. You may not know that along with Craig Balsam, he was the co-founder of indie label/music publishing company Razor...

An Appreciation of the Move

Issue 136TWISTED SYSTEMS

As the COVID epidemic winds down (hopefully soon) this time period will go down as one in which home entertainment (via Netflix, Amazon Prime, HBO, Disney etc. as well as...

Tone Tasting

Issue 136TAKES ON TECH

Previously we have briefly considered just the tip of the iceberg when it comes to examining the factors which influence what audio equipment you may decide to buy. For me,...

The Giants of Tape, Part Three

Issue 136REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

In Part One (Issue 134), J.I. Agnew profiled the legendary Studer A80 open reel deck. Part Two (Issue 135) covered the equally-storied Ampex ATR-100 Series tape machines. In Part Three,...

The Jazz Side of Henry Mancini, Part Two

Issue 136FEATURED

We left off our last survey of the jazz side of Henry Mancini (Issue 135) in New York City, fresh off the Breakfast at Tiffany’s soundtrack. That album was recorded...

The Dawn of Digital and Film Sound Sync: Tales ...

Issue 136DEEP DIVE

In Part One (Issue 135), we reviewed the history of the affordable digital sound production technology that emerged in the 1980s and how some semi-pro and consumer equipment was used to create...

The Nice Price

Issue 136AUDIO ANTHROPOLOGY

The McIntosh CR 4 Satellite System Control. Per Steve Rowell of Audio Classics: no fumbling for the volume buttons; just feel for the knob and turn it! No lost remotes;...

Arrangements of Vivaldi’s The Four Seasons

Issue 136SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

The Four Seasons is one of the most-recorded works in all of classical music. A quick search of Spotify yielded over 500 versions, and the results hadn’t even finished loading. With...

Sam Cooke: Legendary Soul

Issue 136OFF THE CHARTS

Sam Cooke was only two years old in 1933 when his family moved from Mississippi to Chicago. Lucky for us that they did, since it gave young Sam plenty of...

The Virtual Audio Dealer

Issue 136INDUSTRY NEWS

Wendell Diller is the marketing manager for Magnepan. Located in White Bear Lake, Minnesota, Magnepan is the manufacturer of Magneplanar loudspeakers. In the 1970s and 1980s, if you bought a...

Point Taken

Issue 136PARTING SHOT

I met and fell in love with this succulent at the UC Santa Cruz Arboretum and Botanic Garden. He's gorgeous, sturdy and logical, but just a little prickly.

Our Staff

Issue 136MASTHEAD

Staff Writers:J.I. Agnew, Ray Chelstowski, Cliff Chenfeld, Jay Jay French, Tom Gibbs, Roy Hall, Rich Isaacs, Anne E. Johnson, Don Kaplan, Don Lindich, Tom Methans, B. Jan Montana, Rudy Radelic,...

On or Off?

Issue 136MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Should you leave your hi-fi gear on or turn it off? Everybody knows, of course: if it’s solid-state, leave it on. If it’s tube, shut it off. A couple weeks...