Copper

Song of the Nightingale

“Before the morning comes, will I hear your song?” Roxy Music, “Nightingale.”

Phone-ing It In

And he continues to animate the party…the Continental 401 tape recorder, that is! 1960s Philips ad.   Harman Kardon Citation II B stereo power amplifier, circa 1960s. Photo courtesy of...

VMP Anthology: The Story of Herbie Hancock

Vinyl Me, Please (VMP) is a company dedicated to creating singular listening experiences that arrive with records housed in beautifully-designed packaging, and extras that are carefully considered and make the entire...

Classic Yes in the Digital Age

My love for the band Yes goes all the way back to my early teen years; the small town in Northeast Georgia I grew up in had two AM radio...

Chris Whitley: A Nonconformist

The definition of a nonconformist is “a person whose behavior or views do not conform to prevailing ideas or practices.” Yup, that defines the late blues-rock-folk artist Chris Whitley quite...

Chris Brunhaver, PS Audio’s Head Speaker Designer

Chris Brunhaver is the head loudspeaker designer at PS Audio. Chris will be talking about speakers and much more in our new “Speaker Builder” Column. His early background was covered...

The Giants of Tape: The MCI JH-110, Part One

In the last few installments in this series, California was in the spotlight, with discussions of Ampex and their ATR-100 series of tape machines (see Issue 135, Issue 136 and Issue 137). This time,...

The Not-So-Great Wall

In the year 2002, my penchant for off-the-beaten-path travel was deeply satisfied with my visit to, of all places, China’s Great Wall – but only because I chose to explore...

Indigo Girls – The Bards of Athens

It’s rare for someone you met in elementary school to become a lifelong friend, let alone the key to your professional success for decades. But that’s what happened with Amy...

Size Counts

“The Mindful Melophile” is a new column that will appear in every other issue of Copper. It continues the exploration of best-liked, famous, infamous, and little-known LPs and CDs I started in...

DSD – Is It PCM, Or Isn’t It?

A few weeks back, a prominent person in the audio community shared with me their opinion that DSD is a different thing entirely from PCM, and was surprised to hear...

How Much Do We Actually Hear When We Listen?

In March 2021, The Wall Street Journal published an article about the announcement of Spotify HiFi, touted as delivering high-resolution “lossless” digital audio equivalent to CD-quality 44.1 kHz (a debatable definition for...

In a Latin Jazz Bag: The Recordings of Cal Tjad...

Cal Tjader is a musician I have followed most of my life. My mother was an avid fan of his, and while the fifteen or so albums she owned barely...

Subliminal or Sublime Bass?

In issue 137, Russ discussed the advantages a subwoofer or multiple subwoofers can bring to an audio system. The series continues here. Perhaps one of the barriers of entry for managing the...

Elektra – My Record Company Gig

We were starting to level off and the pilot said, “okay, take over.” “Really?” I asked. “Yup, sure; I will show you what to do,” he says. “First, keep the...

Woods, The Weather Station, A Touch of Sault an...

Welcome to the new edition of Be Here Now, a column/playlist where we compile inspiring new music for busy folks who would like to discover outstanding contemporary artists. Here is the...

C.J. Vanston – Producer, Film Composer, Musicia...

In Part One (Issue 137), producer/composer/musician C.J. Vanston talked about the beginning of his career and how he got his recording studio break, on what it was like to play...

Nearfield Listening

Surface Noise

Jean-Baptiste Lully – The Sun King’s Favorite

In the 1600s, it was generally agreed that opera was the sole property of the Italians. So, if you happened to be a French king obsessed with big theatrical spectacles...

Issue 138