Copper


The Big Rock Show

Issue 53

Some friends of mine have been putting on a big rock show annually for the last few years, under the name Wild Honey, as a benefit for the Autism Think...

Sony CEO Steps Down; More Challenges for Gibson

Issue 53INDUSTRY NEWS

Sony Corporation laid out major management shifts in a recent press-release.  CEO Kaz Hirai, widely credited with the company’s return to profitability, began his career at CBS/Sony Music, worked through the video...

Cables: RCA Interconnects

Issue 51FEATURED

There is no magic to good cables; it is adherence to strict design rules that also encompass those “magic” tertiary variables. In the three-part series, Cables: Time is of the Essence, ...

Happy Anniversary to Us!

Issue 53Opening Salvo

Welcome to Copper #53! Our very first issue appeared on March 7, 2016. It's hard to believe that we've been at this for two years now; we've come a long way since...

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Climbing to the Audio Summit Part 3: Speakers a...

Issue 53TWISTED SYSTEMS

As I bring this “Climbing to the Audio Summit” exercise to a close I am not just taken aback by the total amount of gear that I purchased over the...

Cross-country Skiing

Issue 53QUIBBLES AND BITS

I expect all of you will be well familiar with skiing, that glamorous sport that involves hurtling from the top to the bottom of a snow-capped mountain, while dressed in...

Piano Club

Issue 53AND INDIE FOR ALL

Their lead singer and songwriter goes by the cool-cat name of Anthony Sinatra, so you know they take pop vocal music seriously. Still, Piano Club, which has been recording and performing...

Move It On Over: Rockabilly, Part 1

Issue 53MUSIC TO MY EARS

Dave turned onto 13th Ave that runs west out of Ames Iowa, and into the farm country for a Sunday drive with Penny.  Dave’s dad had recently bought a ’56 Chevrolet...

Rikki Farr, Part 1

Issue 56THE COPPER INTERVIEW

[Rikki Farr had a long career as a raconteur and concert promoter, starting with the Beatles ‘way back at the dawn of time—well, the early ’60’s, anyway. Son of Tommy...

Are We Having Fun Yet?

Issue 53THE AUDIO CYNIC

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??”...

QED, Bitches!!

Issue 53FEATURED

Agnostics are often assumed to be wishy-washy—that they dither and um when asked about greater things. But actually, an agnostic has a firm belief: they do not have enough information...

Fort Peck

Issue 53MUSIC'AL NOTES

“You won’t find a hotel room anywhere for the next 300 miles.” We had stopped in a town called Glasgow, Montana, to gas up. I hail from Glasgow, Scotland, and...

The Big Rock Show

Issue 53MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

Some friends of mine have been putting on a big rock show annually for the last few years, under the name Wild Honey, as a benefit for the Autism Think Tank ....

Daughters, Part 1

Issue 53TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

  Choose your parents carefully. That’s probably the best advice anyone can offer a young person who wants to become a composer. It helps a lot if your mom or...

Audio Fidelity: Bobby Palomino of The Teemates,...

Issue 54THE COPPER INTERVIEW

[After the advent of the British invasion, pioneering audiophile label Audio Fidelity  took a crack at the teen market with a NY rock band, The Teemates. Part 1 of John Seetoo’s interview with singer...

Audio Fidelity: Bobby Palomino of The Teemates,...

Issue 53THE COPPER INTERVIEW

[We’ve previously written about the pioneering audiophile label Audio Fidelity on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the release of the first single-groove stereo record by the label, and in John Seetoo’s interview with Andrea Bass,...

A Serious Hobbyist

Issue 53VINTAGE WHINE

In Copper #52 we began poring through a collection of audio ephemera gathered by Dr. James McVay, the grandfather of fellow columnist Duncan Taylor. Dunc brought in a binder full of material from the...

Bach Violin Sonatas

Issue 52SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

J.S. Bach’s works for solo violin are compositional marvels that show off the instrument’s potential while allowing the musician to indulge in intellectual and emotional exploration. In three recent recordings,...

Jesca Hoop

Issue 52... AND INDIE FOR ALL

I can’t imagine a more auspicious start to an indie songwriter’s career than the one Jesca Hoop had in the early 2000s. She was nanny to the children of Tom...

Rikers

Issue 52MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Roy, would you do me a favor? Can you visit Sammy in Rikers Island? He is stopping there for a few weeks on his way upstate to prison and he...

Climbing to the Audio Summit Part 2: Amps/Preamps

Issue 52TWISTED SYSTEMS

The response to “Climbing to the Audio Summit:  Turntables” was truly amazing. The comments really were, for the most part, insightful, and some manufactures should read them. I also have...

Bates—Mason, Not Norman

Issue 52QUIBBLES AND BITS

I have recently been introduced to the American composer Mason Bates, and in particular an album of three of his symphonic works recently released by the San Francisco Symphony.  Indeed, the...

What the Hell is Going On?

Issue 52THE AUDIO CYNIC

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 Defense of Taste

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 52MUSIC

My last piece seems to have raised some eyebrows, though in the end it seems I came out more favorable than not. But it got me to thinking. How much...

Awards Season!

Issue 52TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

Once every year, a year passes! Pundits, critics, observers far and wide seize the opportunity to assess yada yada yada. “Best Of 2017” lists pop up, also Grammy Nominations, BBC Music Magazine...

Issue 52

Issue 52Opening Salvo

...and yet, I have to work on Lincoln's Birthday, Valentine's Day AND Ash Wednesday. Life ain't fair. Anyway... Welcome to Copper #52! John Seetoo is back with another interesting interview---this one with Andrea...

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Some Good News, Some Bad News

Issue 52INDUSTRY NEWS

In Copper #51 we wrote about the demise of Thiel Audio.  The reality of the situation was that the Thiel that was important to audiophiles and music lovers, died long ago. The company that...

The Mysterious Binder

Issue 52VINTAGE WHINE

I wrote about ephemera back in Copper #37. In that column I wrote (and I’m quoting myself because I don’t think I can say it any better now): “I also learned that there was...

Schwartz Does NAMM

Issue 52FEATURED

I’ve just been to my 41st NAMM show. I’ve only been to a few CESs, about a dozen exclusively Hi-Fi shows, a bunch of AES, but NAMM… I just keep going. For...

The Blues: Willie (who was also blind) Johnson

Issue 52MUSIC TO MY EARS

Out of one the darkest periods of our history came a style of music that would have never happened without the slave trade.  Let me be clear, for one man...

Audio Fidelity: Andrea Bass

Issue 52THE COPPER INTERVIEW

[Back in Copper #44 I devoted a Vintage Whine column to the 60th anniversary of the single-groove stereo disc, first launched by the small American indie label Audio Fidelity. As there was a lot of interest in that...

Nat King Cole: For Sentimental Reasons

Issue 51MUSIC TO MY EARS

In 1926 Nathaniel Adams Cole was 7 years old and US Route 66 was established as a part of the US Highway System.  I don’t have to go into where...

One Down, One to Go

Issue 51INDUSTRY NEWS

Starting in  Copper #40, there have been several occasions when we’ve looked at the activities of two companies that historically have been truly important to the worlds of audio and music—though not...

Tom Fine, Part 3

Issue 51THE COPPER INTERVIEW

[Tom Fine is an archival/recording/mastering engineer, and if if his name sounds familiar, it’s likely because he’s the son of Robert Fine and Wilma Cozart Fine. One of the rare husband-wife teams in...

CES: A Look Around

Issue 51FEATURED

Our little world is categorized as “High-Performance Audio” (HPA) by the Consumer Technology Association, the group that puts on CES every year, and I think that’s a far better term than...

David Myles

Issue 51... AND INDIE FOR ALL

David Myles is a Halifax-based singer/songwriter with a smooth and tender voice, a vaguely retro look and sound, and an insatiable love of many types of music. At 36 years...

15,000 Pages!

Issue 51VINTAGE WHINE

I started reading when I was 3. I say that not to evoke any particular reaction in the reader, but just to make clear the fact that I’ve been reading...

The Deal (or: How Adolf Hitler Bought Me a Jaguar)

Issue 51MUSIC'AL NOTES

Reading the deed in the Grundbuch (land registry) in East Berlin was chilling. It showed that my grandmother had purchased a property in Lichtenberg in 1932. In 1941 a swastika...

Climbing to the Audio Summit Part 1: Turntables

Issue 51TWISTED SYSTEMS

I want to thank you all for your comments on the “Great ’67 Psychedelic Shoot-out”.  [In case you missed it: Part 1 Part 2  Part 3  Part 4  Part 5   The Winner!  —Ed.]  Spoiler alert!: The winner was Pink...

Loudness

Issue 51QUIBBLES AND BITS

It was Lee Atwater, a controversial campaign strategist for Bush Sr.’s successful 1988 presidential campaign who coined the phrase “Perception is Reality”.  Unfortunately for Bush (but more so for Atwater, it must...

In the Land of the Surreal, Is Realism Relevant?

Issue 51THE AUDIO CYNIC

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...

Danny Thompson

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 51MUSIC

While writing the last few chapters, I talked on occasion to Rick Turner. He suggested that I should write about someone who it turns out is a favorite upright bass...

Searching For Big

Issue 51TOO MUCH TCHAIKOVSKY

I’ve been listening to, or watching, a lot of new opera lately. Saw Thomas Adès’s The Exterminating Angel at the local multiplex, via Met HD; listened to the live Pentatone recording of Jake Heggie’s It’s...