Copper
Personality Crisis: The Story of David Johansen
How does one capture the life of David Johansen, front man for the New York Dolls and later a solo artist? It's a massive feat best left to master storyteller...
A Visit to Dan D'Agostino Master Audio Systems
Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles between publications. Here we are honored to present an article from FIDELITY about a tour of Dan D'Agostino Master Audio...
A Visit to Wilson Audio: Tour of an American Hi...
Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles between publications. Here we are honored to present an article from FIDELITY about a tour of...
Considering CD’s 40th Birthday
I did not want the Compact Disc’s 40th anniversary to slip by without making a few observations. After all, I covered the format during its peak for Replication News, the...
Tape vs. Vinyl: An Old Pawnshop Favorite
I just received my reel-to-reel tape copy of Jazz at the Pawnshop from AudioNautes Recordings last week. For those of you who are unfamiliar with this recording, who I suspect...
The 1980s: The Music Was Unfairly Maligned
Leave it to an unexpected COVID-driven quarantine to reassess one’s affinity for an entire decade of music. The impetus for this rabbit-hole deep dive was my Australian Facebook friend Katie...
Can’t Get Enough (of Your Pressings)
Author’s note: The following article was written in spring 2021 for the recently-published book Record Store Day: The Most Improbable Comeback of the 21st Century (Rare Bird Books, Los Angeles),...
The History of A&M Records, Part Seven: A&a...
Continuing our 60th anniversary celebration of A&M Records, our journey will now take us south of the border. A&M’s foundation was built on music with a Mexican flavor – the...
Tape Versus Vinyl
In my previous articles, I have alluded to the fact that there are many factors that determine the sound quality of an LP. The quality of the original recording is...
The Evolution of In-Ear Monitors
They have become ubiquitous on concert stages from clubs and churches to theaters and stadiums. They have become so popular that some people prefer them over conventional headphones, and they...
The Joys of Monophonic Recordings, Part Two
In my previous article (Issue 162), I discussed the early monophonic recordings of the violinist Nathan Milstein. He was a very popular artist in his day, and his recordings are easy to...
Shelby Lynne – An American Original, Part Two
Part One (Issue 163) covered singer/songwriter Shelby Lynne’s career from her first release with George Jones in 1988 to her 2007 landmark, Just a Little Lovin’. Tears, Lies and Alibis (2010) was the...
Shelby Lynne: An American Original, Part One
The tale of actress Kim Novak is one of Hollywood’s greatest walk-away stories. As a rising “blonde bombshell” starlet, she epitomized intelligent women who possessed an underlying sadness but could...
The Joys of Monophonic Recordings, Part One
The development of modern stereophonic recording technique is generally credited to British engineer Alan Blumlein, who started experimenting with it during the first half of the 1930s, even though some...
The A&M Records Story, Part One
The year was 1962. A singer/trumpet player in Los Angeles, inspired by the sounds of a Tijuana bullfight, turned a song called “Twinkle Star” written by a composer and bandleader...
The Murky Landscape of Music Creation and Owner...
The origins of music are generally linked to mythological, religious, and/or philosophical beliefs. Ancient Chinese musical instrumentation, for example, was used in order to appeal to the supernatural, for dance,...
The Two Sides of Billy Preston
Old-school 45-rpm records have an A- and B-side. The A-side is the featured song an artist or producer believes has “hit” potential. The B-side is considered less promising, though occasionally...
Keeping My Reel-to-Reel Machine Running
I have enjoyed reading Ken Kessler's Copper series on reel-to reel tapes enormously. 146, 148, 149, 151, 152, 153, 154 and this issue – Ed.> My first exposure to hi-fi...
Be-Bop Deluxe: Reclaiming a Place In Prog Rock ...
During the 1970s, the UK was fertile ground for some of the most significant rock subgenres to emerge and make their marks in music recording history. Artists like Led Zeppelin,...
Burt Bacharach: The A&M Years
Previous installments of our series on Burt Bacharach appeared in Issues 146, 147, 148 and 149. Instrumentally Bacharach As the tail end of the Dionne Warwick era came closer, Burt...
Phil Keaggy – A Lifetime Of Joyful Noises, Part...
Parts One, Two, Three and Four of this series appeared in Issues 145, 146, 148 and 149. In covering the half-century long career of Contemporary Christian music (CCM) pioneer and...
Are Musicians’ Brains Wired Differently?
It’s not unusual for musicians to be characterized as strange, eccentric and even downright wacky. Maybe that’s why I’m drawn to them. I’m fascinated by eccentricity, nonconformity and rebelliousness, traits...
Roon Done Right: A User Guide, Part Two
In Part One (Issue 146), we covered the fundamentals of what Roon is and how it works, and the advantages it provides in organizing and accessing digital music. Part Two explores the...
Roon Done Right: A User Guide
Many people think of Roon as a media player or media server, but it’s neither! Good thing, too, as it would be crazy to spend $120/year renting software to play music you...
Moving to Computer Audio: A Comprehensive Overv...
In Part One (Issue 144) we looked at the fundamental considerations in building a computer-based high-resolution audio system, creating a music library, DACs and how to best implement them, and audiophile computers...
Cassette Multitrack Recorders: the Original DIY...
During the 1960s and 1970s the notion of a personal studio for an artist to record demos or possibly masters of their songs was still an expensive prospect, involving reel-to-reel...
A Visit to Capitol Studios
“7 Audio Wonders of the World” was a series of virtual recording studio tours created by the Audio Engineering Society (AES) as the star attraction for its AES Fall Show...
Cal Tjader, Part Five: The Concord Recordings
In our last installment (Issue 141), Cal Tjader had wrapped up his final album for Fantasy. He had rejoined Fantasy in 1970, but by 1974 he was already anxious to move on...
Notable Analog Recordings. Part One
I installed a new cartridge on my record player about a month ago. I bought my previous cartridge about six years ago during a visit to Japan, when the yen/dollar...
Cal Tjader, Part Four: The Second Fantasy Recor...
In Issues 138, 139 and 140, this series covered Cal Tjader’s early years at Fantasy Records, the Verve Records period from 1961 – 1968, and his following stints at Skye...
Ancient Garrard Turntables: Still Relevant Toda...
In Part One (Issue 139), Adrian Wu outlined a history of Garrard 301, 401 and other turntables, and provided an in-depth examination of their advantages and foibles. Part Two concludes...
Cal Tjader: The Verve Era (1961 – 1968)
In our first installment of this series, we looked at Cal Tjader’s first body of work on the Fantasy Records label. Our story picks up at the point where Tjader...
Ancient Garrard Turntables: Still Relevant Today?
When I first got into this hobby in the early 1980s in the UK, Linn ruled the land of turntables, and British audiophiles hung on to every word uttered by...
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...
The Dawn of Digital and Film Sound Sync: Tales ...
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...
Some Notable Analog Recordings, Part Two
In Part One (Issue 141), Adrian looked at vinyl versus tape playback, the record-manufacturing process, and one of his favorite recordings, the Lyrita Recorded Edition LP of Malcolm Arnold and the London...
The Dawn of Digital and Film Sound Sync: Tales ...
1986 seems like ancient history but at the same time, it also seems like it could have been only last week. It was a time when digital sound was a...
Open Reel Tape: The Ultimate Analog Source? Par...
In the previous article in this series (Issue 132), we discussed the rationale for listening to open reel tapes in this era of digital music. If you love certain artists and their...
United Recording Studios: An Industry Legend
This year’s AES Fall Show 2020 was conducted virtually, due to COVID-19 restrictions in New York, which prevented the convention from being held in the Javits Center, its usual venue....
Open Reel Tape – The Ultimate Analog Source?
With the advances in digital audio technology of recent years, is there still a role for analog audio? In my previous article (in Issue 131), I argued that many recordings made during...
Cable Design and the Speed of Sound, Part Three
In Part One of this series (Issue 130), Galen Gareis of ICONOCLAST cables and Belden Inc. began an extensive exploration into a critical but not often discussed aspect of cable...
Cable Design and the Speed of Sound, Part Two
In Part One of this series (Issue 130), Galen Gareis of ICONOCLAST cables and Belden Inc. began an extensive exploration into a critical but not often discussed aspect of cable design: the velocity of propagation (Vp)...
Cable Design and the Speed of Sound, Part One
As most audiophiles and readers of this magazine are aware, the subject of audio cables can be fraught with opinions, information, misinformation, heated discussions on forums and more. From time...
To Test, Or Not to Test, Part Five: Vacuum Tubes
In a previous article in this series (Issue 128), I discussed measurements that help determine the quality of electronic components such as capacitors and resistors. However, most audiophiles are quite...
Inside an Audio Legend: Abbey Road Studios
Since 1969, the name Abbey Road has become synonymous in the world of popular culture with The Beatles’ swan song album of the same title. To Londoners, it is a...
Mic-Boggling: Sylvia Massy's Microphone Museum
Producer, engineer, author and educator – these are just some of the roles that can be attributed to Sylvia Massy. Her work with Rick Rubin, Tool, Red Hot Chili Peppers,...
To Test or Not to Test, That is the Question, P...
In the last two installments of this series, I discussed measurements of the two components most prone to developing or causing problems, namely our ears, and room acoustics. The rest...
To Test or Not to Test, That is the Question, P...
In a previous installment of this series in Issue 126, I discussed measuring the most important component of an audio system, which is the ear. It is most important because no...
To Test or Not to Test, That is the Question? P...
In the last installment, I discussed the most quoted test measurement in audio, total harmonic distortion ((THD), and its correlation with sound quality. Once upon a time, audio magazines mostly...