Copper
So Long to the Cynic
Over the last 95 issues of Copper, it’s been mentioned more than once that as a cynic…I might be a bit of a fraud. I’ll own up to that. “Disappointed idealist” is...
Getting to the Bottom of Things
I recently had the opportunity to spend an afternoon listening to records with a reviewer. In addition to an absolutely ridiculous record collection, he had an extraordinarily-resolving system. If I...
Inevitability
I recently had an interesting conversation with a Very Famous Audio Engineer. I asked about his background, how he grew up, and the factors that made him choose his...
Back to Basics
I had a minor-league epiphany, courtesy of Waylon Jennings and my seven-month-old granddaughter. I sang in choirs and choruses for many years, floating between baritone and bass depending upon the...
The Long Goodbye
Over the last few years of writing this column, I’ve had to write “RIP” in titles several times as friends and colleagues have passed away. Being a typical male, I’ve...
Been Down So Long, It Seems Like Up To Me
As a parent, I’m used to my references being met with blank stares or an overt “Huh??” from my children. But I know I’m getting old when more and more, I encounter...
Is Audio Seasonal?
I’ve been a salesman or worked with salespeople most of my working life, and one thing I know is that as a group, they work hard. They have to. It’s...
Objective/Subjective: Here We Go Again
“Seeing as ‘objective review’ is an oxymoron, ‘subjective review’ is moronic.” My contentious friend Michael Lavorgna—late of Stereophile and AudioStream, currently of his own site, Twittering Machines— recently posted that statement on Facebook. Michael often mocks...
The Madness of Crowds, the Wisdom of T-shirts
It has probably become evident after 85 (!!) of these columns that I distrust snap judgments. Unfortunately, I also distrust my inclination to distrust snap judgments. As you can imagine, this...
Consolidation
Is there such a thing as economy of scale? If you put 10 similar companies together, can you succeed by offering, as a friend suggested, the VW variations? Audi, Skoda,...
Is There a Right Size?
Second-guessing is at the heart of online forum behavior, and I wouldn’t want to rob anyone of the joy that comes from being an expert on a subject of which...
Schrödinger’s Show
To an exhibitor at an audio show, the show simultaneously exists and does not exist. If the show is thankfully, blessedly busy, the personal and professional domain of the exhibit...
A Familiar Story
This story has nothing to do with audio. It does, however, have a lot to do with the “Cynic” part of this column’s title. I’ve encouraged Copper‘s writers to go somewhat...
Credit? What's Next---Money??
Last issue’s Audio Cynic discussed the ongoing battle to gain musicians and composers reasonable payment for the use of the work, primarily by streaming services. For every step forward in that battle—like...
Who Are the Real Cynics?
In the three years I’ve written this column, there have been several occasions when it’s occurred to me that it may be misnamed. Truth be told, I’m more of a...
Did the Grammys Ever Matter?
Somewhere in the hazy past, I wrote that nostalgia ain’t what it used to be. The cynical part of me thinks that the rosy glow with which we surround many...
Music is the Space Between the Notes
Depending upon whom you believe, that statement was made by either Claude Debussy or Miles Davis. I’m certainly no authority on Debussy, but it seems to me that his stuff...
Grilled Cheese and Tomato Soup
There are days for haute cuisine, hipster toy food, meals that challenge and provoke and lead one to question the nature of food itself: nourishment? Art? An act of rebellion...
No CES For You!
Yes, it’s that time again. Time for Leebs’ annual rant about CES—after the fact, as the show took place last week in Las Vegas. Way back in the very first...
2018 Was Really Something
Over more decades in audio than I care to dwell upon, I’ve attended concerts and demos that assaulted not just my ears but my intellect and my emotional stability. Somehow...
All I Want For Christmas…
…is Peace. And no, I don’t even mean the large-scale, unobtainable kind of peace involved in the World Order. I just mean, can we kindly for once remember that the whole deal...
Immaterial Science
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...
Music in the Air
Somewhere over Brazil, 11/10/18: When we write about listening to music, we often refer to blacker backgrounds, greater inter-transient depth—and similar hogwash. When I talk to the engineers I work with...
Liminal Messages
I rarely notice ads, other than to be irritated by them. In my car, I listen to a local listener-supported station, largely to avoid ads (I mostly like the music—but...
Glossolalia
If you don’t know the meaning of the babbling brook of a word above, don’t feel bad. I deliberately chose an obscure word in order to make a point—here’s the...
Humility and Hubris
As a kid in Minnesota during the early to mid-’60s, I was a fan of the Minnesota Twins. In spite of having a cut-rate stadium out in the then-sticks of...
When Sharing Isn't Caring
It is probably evident at this stage of our relationship—and yes, contrary to my curmudgeonly nature, I perversely feel that writer and reader actually have a relationship—that I am wary...
Welcome to the Machine
Pop music has always had machines: groups of people who were responsible for an unconscionable, unbelievable percentage of all the hit songs that have permeated the airwaves and our lives....
Nothing New Under the Sun?
Having entered my allegedly-golden years, I have little tolerance for pontification or pretense. I’m more likely to quote Kafka or Bart Simpson than scripture of any form…but don’t worry, I...
What’s In the Box?
There is no mystery in the world today. –That’s not entirely true. There’s plenty of mystery, mostly related to the inexplicable fame of certain individuals, famous for…being famous. The mystery...
"It's All About the Music"
When I encounter an audiophile or a show-exhibitor with a massive, megabuck system playing a tight playlist of only audiophile-approved tracks and they tell me, “it’s all about the music,”...
In Search of Meaning, Where There Is None
First off, don’t look at the title and image above and think, “oh, great, Leebs is off on his midlife crisis—finally.” For starters, “midlife” applied to me would mean I...
Diminishing Returns (Or: The Clock Radio Dilemma)
While at the Munich High End Show last month, I saw portable audio gear the size of my hand. And, as I mentioned in my video, I also encountered systems that were decidedly...
David Wilson: RIP
The first 60 issues of Copper have featured 6 Audio Cynic columns headed “RIP”. One in ten is far too many for my taste; sadly, given the demographics of our industry, I’m afraid that...
"The Price is the Product"
Way back in 1999, the late Brian Cheney of VMPS loudspeakers wrote a piece called “The Price is the Product”. I was a little shocked to find it online on Audiophile Audition; frankly, I...
A Tale of Two Shows
It was the best of times… Scrap that. I’ve written about my friend and mentor Richard Beers several times, starting ‘way back in Copper #7. While I despise the lingua franca of biz-speak, it would...
Anti-social Media
Despite appearances—and perhaps despite my self-description as a cynic—I try to be a live-and-let-live type. I am careful to NOT describe myself as “easygoing”; I once did so in the...
Made By Hand
As a late Boomer (as well as a late bloomer) I’m clearly a child of the industrial era. Perhaps because of that, I have an inordinate appreciation for those who...
Ergonomics and Other Gooey Messes
In my teen years, my reading was wide-ranging and varied, aided by access to the million-volume Morris Library at Southern Illinois University. It was originally a handsome building done in...
How Do You Know When To Quit?
No, don’t worry—I’m not planning on retiring any time soon. It just ain’t an option. Besides which, I’m having fun— at least as much fun as a morose, depressive upper-Midwesterner...
This... Is Not That
There’s a term that both guides and haunts any human involved in marketing or selling not just audio, but…well, anything, really: differentiation. How is what I do/make/sell different from what everyone...
Are We Having Fun Yet?
A newbie wandering onto almost any audio website or forum might ask, after a brief perusal, “Jeez, why so serious? Why are they all so ANGRY?? “Is anybody having FUN??”...
What the Hell is Going On?
Back in my school-days, I found the subject of history completely boring. I realize now that it wasn’t the subject itself that was boring, but the way in which it...
In the Land of the Surreal, Is Realism Relevant?
I despise dogma—especially when it comes from me. So when I find that pretty much everything I say regarding CES has become strident and predictable—it worries me. Enough so that I may have to...
What Will Be New, in the New Year?
It’s been 141 years since Bell’s first call over the device that became the telephone. 140 years ago, Edison’s phonograph became the first device that could play back recorded sound....
Who Sampled Whom?
Back in Copper #3, I asked the question, “When is Stealing Music Not Stealing?” To make a long story short, my conclusion was that stealing is always stealing, whether it’s a thinly-veiled cover version or...
An Embarrassment of Riches
Leave it to an indy hipster musician with several different noms de scène de musicien (stage names) to angst over having too much music. Funny thing is—I agree with him. James Jackson Toth is a...
Charley Hansen: RIP
Ayre Acoustics posted the following on the company Facebook page and website on Wednesday, November 29: “Charles Hansen 1956 – 2017 “With heavy hearts, we regret to inform you that Charles Hansen, founder of Ayre...
Geezerpalooza
Back at the dawn of the grunge era in 1991, Perry Farrell dreamed up Lollapalooza as a festival that would serve as a grand farewell tour for his band, Jane’s Addiction. Over...
Dangerous Work
If 2016 was Snakebit, in terms of the number of musicians who died—what should we call 2017? Sure, last year saw incredible losses in the music world: David Bowie, Prince, Glenn...