Copper


Metallica: An Inside Look

Issue 140THE COPPER INTERVIEW

When my good buddy James asked if I’d like to do a Q&A with his friend and Metallica stage manager, Mike Washer, I said “absolutely.” I knew a Q&A with...

A Charmed Life

Issue 140FEATURED

 One of the attendees I met at The Home Entertainment (T.H.E.) Show in Long Beach last month was a guy named Carter. Every time I noticed him in the listening...

Chinese Food for Thought

Issue 140NEW VISTAS

After five weeks consuming the compromised cuisine of Mongolia – an almost vegetable-free land of herders and nomads – eating while traveling in China was an exciting daily adventure. Each...

Ancient Garrard Turntables: Still Relevant Toda...

Issue 140DEEP DIVE

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...

What Was the B.F.D. About R.E.M.?

Issue 140FEATURED

My neighbor is a generation younger than me. I’ll call him Trent. Like everyone else in my neighborhood, Trent and his wife are spending part of the pandemic cleaning out...

The Ramones, Early On

Issue 140TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

It was a conference call from Linda Stein and Danny Fields in 1976. They told me they managed the Ramones and had a UK tour coming up. They offer me...

A Tale of Two Systems...

Issue 140TWISTED SYSTEMS

...and a podcast announcement. I now have a podcast called “The Jay Jay French Connection: Beyond the Music,” available on the Spotify, Apple Music and PodcastOne platforms. On a recent...

Tanya Tucker: Delta Dawn Never Sets

Issue 140OFF THE CHARTS

Child stars have a way of losing their luster in adulthood, but country singer Tanya Tucker is a rare exception. She had her first hit single in 1972, when she...

The Chamber Music of Luigi Boccherini: Elegance...

Issue 140SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

In his own day, Luigi Boccherini (1743-1805) was decidedly retro. The Italian composer was trained first by his cellist father in the town of Lucca and eventually in the musically...

The Allman Brothers and the Making of the 50th ...

Issue 140DISCIPLES OF SOUND

When Jaimoe, one of the last surviving original members of the Allman Brothers Band reached out to his former bandmates early last year, no one could possibly have imagined how...

AES Show Spring 2021, Part Two: Psychology and ...

Issue 140INDUSTRY NEWS

As a result of COVID-19, AES Show Spring 2021, named “Global Resonance,” was conducted online from Europe. This afforded me the rare opportunity to view a number of the presentations,...

Alone Together

Issue 140PARTING SHOT

Devils Golf Course, Death Valley National Park, California, October 2018. The rock formations are about knee-high and sharp enough to cause cuts.

Platinum Award

Issue 140Opening Salvo

We’re proud to announce that Copper writer Alón Sagee, chief troublemaker of the San Francisco Audiophile Society, has received the society’s first Founder’s Award. It happened in a surprise ceremony...

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Well Traveled

Issue 139PARTING SHOT

These boots were made for walking. Cowgirl, Sonoita, Arizona.

Classic Yes in High-Resolution Digital

Issue 139TO BE DETERMINED

Now that my digital music system has been hitting on all cylinders for several months, I’ve suddenly become interested in high-resolution releases of Yes albums again, and have been on...

International Sweethearts of Rhythm: Swing Is a...

Issue 139TRADING EIGHTS

Although they are not as well remembered as their male counterparts, there were a number of female-only bands in the early decades of jazz. Harlem musician Lil Hardin had her...

The Giants of Tape, Part Six: the MCI JH-110, P...

Issue 139REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

In the previous episode, we talked about the merits of the MCI JH-110 professional studio tape recorder. Now it’s time to have a look at its not-so-strong points. Despite its...

Pump It Up: Elvis Costello

Issue 139OFF THE CHARTS

In the early 1970s, some young musicians in London were getting tired of the fancy productions being pawned off as rock music. They made an effort to get back to...

Standing Room Only

Issue 139SPEAKER STORIES

Wouldn’t you hate it if you went to the theatre and had purchased your higher-tier seats with guaranteed optimal views of everyone on stage, the sets and even a glimpse...

The Montreux Years: Documenting The Legendary J...

Issue 139DISCIPLES OF SOUND

The Montreux Jazz Festival has been home to some of modern music’s most memorable live performances. Across its fifty-year history, what has really set the festival apart has been its commitment to...

Cal Tjader: The Verve Era (1961 – 1968)

Issue 139DEEP DIVE

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...

Between Tours

Issue 139TRUE-LIFE ROCK TALES

I am sitting in Trax, a music biz hangout club that is a few steps below street level. Trax was a pretty good-sized space located in a pre-War building on...

Big Mac

Issue 139AUDIO ANTHROPOLOGY

A MAC Audio Company MAC-1900 receiver. Made by McIntosh in the 1970s at a time when Frank McIntosh would not put his name on a receiver. Photo courtesy of Howard...

Octave Records’ Latest: The Nature of Things by...

Issue 139OCTAVE PITCH

Octave Records is honored to announce its latest release, The Nature of Things by Foxfeather. It’s a compelling blend of rock, pop, acoustic-electric roots music, blues and more, led by...

Acoustic Guitarist Extraordinaire: Gordon Giltr...

Issue 139THE COPPER INTERVIEW

Modern-day troubadour and acoustic-guitar pioneer since the 1960s, Gordon Giltrap, MBE (Most Excellent Order of the British Empire) is one of the finest guitarists of his generation. The English musician...

The Return of T.H.E. Show

Issue 139FROM THE SWEET SPOT

Kids used to go to the carnival to have fun. They didn’t go there to make a living, network, or scope out the competition. For me, audio shows are like...

Tom Waits – Our Beat Storyteller, Part One

Issue 139MUSIC TO MY EARS

He was born when lightning struck a distillery near Pomona, somewhere between All Saint’s Day and All Fool’s Day. His essence spilled out of a busted bottle of Chivas Regal...

AES Show Spring 2021, Part One

Issue 139INDUSTRY NEWS

Similarly to their AES Fall 2020 New York show, the Audio Engineering Society’s AES Show Spring 2021 convention, though “located” in Europe, was conducted virtually –which allowed a New Yorker...

Ancient Garrard Turntables: Still Relevant Today?

Issue 139DEEP DIVE

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...

Self-Help Before YouTube

Issue 139FEATURED

Have you ever wondered how we learned to do things (repair/install/build/develop skills, etc.) before smartphones and YouTube came along? Well, back in ancient times, before “there’s an app for that,”...

Phair Play

Issue 139WAYNE'S WORDS

Liz Phair: Soberish (Chrysalis) Liz Phair: Horror Stories (memoir 2018) A few weeks ago a new Liz Phair song, “Hey Lou,” came on the radio, and I was smitten. It’s an imagined, one-way conversation...

Copy That

Issue 139Opening Salvo

Copper’s writers and I strive for excellence, and work hard to ensure that articles are carefully proofread. But errors occasionally slip by, and when they appear, they’re typically just flat-out...

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Song of the Nightingale

Issue 138PARTING SHOT

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

Phone-ing It In

Issue 138AUDIO ANTHROPOLOGY

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

Issue 138THE COPPER INTERVIEW

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

Issue 138TO BE DETERMINED

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

Issue 138FEATURED

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

Issue 138SPEAKER BUILDER

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

Issue 138REVOLUTIONS PER MINUTE

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

Issue 138NEW VISTAS

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

Issue 138OFF THE CHARTS

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

Issue 138THE MINDFUL MELOPHILE

“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?

Issue 138QUIBBLES AND BITS

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?

Issue 138DEEP DIVE

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...

Issue 138DEEP DIVE

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...