Copper


CEDIA

Issue 42FEATURED

The Custom Electronic Design and Installation Association — better known as CEDIA — holds an annual show for audio/video installers and custom home integrators.  It’s a great place to learn about custom...

Massive Layoffs at Harman Pro

Issue 42INDUSTRY NEWS

Back in Copper #27, we reported legal woes at Samsung  and made mention of that company’s purchase of Harman International. As is to be expected when any company is sold to a monolith like...

Value For Money?

Issue 42QUIBBLES AND BITS

Upgrading your Hi-Fi equipment can be both deeply satisfying, and deeply unsatisfactory, and both at the same time. Satisfying, because you have invested in something that you have either wanted...

Wood

Issue 42VINTAGE WHINE

Back in Copper #31, I wrote about the subject of Tone, and how it seems to have vanished as a topic of audio discussions—and really, from consideration as a vital element of audio design....

Alice Phoebe Lou

Issue 42AND INDIE FOR ALL

At the ripe old age of 17, Alice Phoebe Lou decided she’d had enough of life in her native South Africa. She slung her guitar across her back and headed...

Conrad-Johnson Sold

Issue 41INDUSTRY NEWS

Bill Conrad and Lew Johnson were government economists who happened to be dedicated audiophiles—dedicated enough to build their own gear. In 1977 the pair introduced a vacuum tube preamplifier whose...

Meetings With Remarkable Men, Part 3

Issue 42MUSIC AUDIO AND OTHER ILLNESSES

In the previous two articles, I wrote about encountering Jack Casady and Phil Lesh as a teenager. Of course, I could write pages and pages about the influence of my father (and my brothers)....

Issue 41

Issue 41Opening Salvo

Welcome to Copper #41! The title isn't to announce a James Taylor retrospective---sorry to crush your hopes--- but is just what I see in today's weather reports. The Pacific Northwest, where I'm...

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LP Playback: Is It Really Reference-Quality?

Issue 41FEATURED

Is it truly superior if it has not one, but two iterations of eq; an extra gain stage; a signal-to-noise ratio that is definitely not so superior; inner-groove distortion; variable performance; and...

Show on Show on Show

Issue 41THE AUDIO CYNIC

The title is of course an allusion to “In the Bleak Midwinter”.  Make of that what you will; it just came to mind, unbidden, while thinking yet again about audio...

Anohni

Issue 41... AND INDIE FOR ALL

British singer-songwriter Antony Hegarty now uses a “spirit name,” Anohni. She also now prefers female pronouns, although she has always considered her gender to be fluid. As she told the Guardian,...

Not Everybody Was Kung Fu Fighting

Issue 42FEATURED

The popularity of martial arts has grown exponentially in the US in recent years. The sale of the UFC for $4 billion last summer only demonstrates the huge demand for...

Bang & Olufsen, Part 2

Issue 41VINTAGE WHINE

Continuing from Part 1 , we’ll look at more legacy Bang & Olufsen products in the city museum of Struer, Denmark, B&O’s home for nearly a century. In the last issue, we...

MQA Just Ruined My Stereo

Issue 42HOBGOBLIN

[Please note: this piece was originally run in Copper #6,  when distribution of MQA and MQA-encoded files was still very limited. Seth wrote in anticipation of things to come, and was looking forward to not...

Immersion

Issue 42THE AUDIO CYNIC

You’ve probably already figured this out, but I am innately distrustful of fads, buzzwords, and whatevers du jour. I never read a book while it’s on the NYT bestsellers list....

Right on the Edge of Disaster

Issue 41HOBGOBLIN

Here’s a simple question: which is more fun to drive down a winding country road at 30 miles an hour? A new Bentley or a 1969 Jaguar? Most car fans...

The Beauty of Song Part 2

Issue 42FEATURED

[In the last issue of Copper, Jason Victor Serinus introduced us to the beauty and communicative power of art song. That story paves the way for what follows below.—Ed.] One of the great...

Justice

Issue 42MUSIC'AL NOTES

“I don’t know why I am telling you this. “ said the large woman who a short while ago had hurriedly sat down beside me and fastened her seatbelt. She...

The Beauty of Song Part 1

Issue 41FEATURED

The magic of classical song springs from the fact that it requires a singer and accompanist to construct an entire emotional universe in a very short amount of time. You...

Welcome to the Smoke on the Water Jungle Sweet ...

Issue 41FEATURED

Imagine John Cleese with a red dot on his forehead, wearing a lungi and sitting on stage, playing Indian classical music on an alto saxophone. Carnatic musician Kadri Goplanath looks so much like the...

Jethro Tull Beggar's Farm

Issue 40MUSIC TO MY EARS

Jethro Tull was a intriguing lawyer and agriculturist whose life straddled the turn of the 18th century.  Tull passed the bar in 1693 but soon developed some lung problems that prompted...

Bang & Olufsen, Part 1

Issue 40VINTAGE WHINE

In 2013 I was fortunate to have a consulting gig with Bang & Olufsen, in Denmark. Drawing upon that experience, this piece will be partly travelogue, partly the usual brand...

Art

Issue 41MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Hello, this is Robert Rauschenberg’s personal secretary. Mr. Rauschenberg wants to know if you would like to swap art for a pair of speakers?” In 1981 I opened a factory...

Intelligence Inside

Issue 40THE AUDIO CYNIC

Way back in Copper #26 I wrote “The IoT is Not For Me”, in which I bemoaned the unnecessary inter-connectedness of every damn thing from cars to refrigerators and dishwashers. As I...

The Death of High-End Audio?

Issue 40FEATURED

We’ve all seen and heard the discussions concerning the so-called death of high-end audio.  There are many reasons why that topic keeps resurfacing, but here is the one that I...

I Scream, You Scream---For Gelato? Sorbet?

Issue 40FEATURED

The freezer section at the local grocery store is only getting more complicated as food trends ebb and flow. Seasons change, kitchen technology improves, and what results is a seriously...

Frescobaldi

Issue 40SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

For the majority of classical music fans, Girolamo Frescobaldi (1583-1643) might not rank among the pantheon of composer superstars, but he was one of the most influential composers in European...

Out of Control

Issue 40FEATURED

This article was first published in the Dubai-based English daily Gulf News. I’ve written a personal essay for their op-ed page twice a month since 2005. I often write about music and...

Sadie

Issue 40MUSIC'AL NOTES

“Hello Sadie, when are you leaving?” said my father, the most mild mannered of men. Aunt Sadie had arrived at our doorstep on her annual visit. She was my mother’s...

My Favorite Tweak

Issue 40HOBGOBLIN

It involves an Eberhard Faber Design Art Marker No. 255, in green if you insist, but you can also use a pencil. While listening to music (it works with analog...

After the Eclipse

Issue 40Opening Salvo

Welcome to Copper #40! The old expression "a miss is as good as a mile" seems to apply to the recent eclipse: those of us in the 90% range of totality were...

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What Is a Symphony?

Issue 41QUIBBLES AND BITS

Most of you who do not make a habit of listening to classical music will have heard of a Symphony, and know that it is some sort of portentous orchestral...

Petite Noir

Issue 40... AND INDIE FOR ALL

There are as many influences on Petite Noir’s music as the singer/songwriter/producer has claims to nationality. The 27-year-old started life in Belgium as Yanick Ilunga, son to Congolese parents. He...

Meetings With Remarkable Men, Part 2

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 41MUSIC

I wasn’t much of a Grateful Dead fan at first. A neighbor said I should come to his house to hear Workingman’s Dead, and I thought it was OK. The next...

Meetings With Remarkable Men, Part 1

AND OTHER ILLNESSESAUDIOIssue 40MUSIC

Last time out, I wrote a bit about the Grateful Dead’s Wall of Sound, and a little about the circumstances surrounding it. It’s something I’m thinking quite a bit now...

Changes Everywhere in Audio

Issue 40INDUSTRY NEWS

There are major changes afoot in the audio industry, and few are being formally announced by press-releases. I’ll present info that is verified as reliable, and link to sources when...

The Pipe Organ in my Living Room : A Lifelong J...

Issue 40IN MY ROOM

[This issue’s In My Room is a little different from our usual offerings: Joseph Grogan tells the tale of building a pipe organ in his living room, combining seriously high-quality audio equipment...

Two's a Compliment

Issue 40QUIBBLES AND BITS

[The article deals with two’s complement, but the title was spelled as it is as a bit of a joke by Richard. So—no emails to  Ye Olde Editor complaining of...

Nilsson Sings Newman

Issue 39SOMETHING OLD / SOMETHING NEW

Harry Nilsson Album: Nilsson Sings Newman LP, 8-track, Cassette Original Release: RCA Victor Records, February, 1970 I don’t know about you, but considering something that happened forty-seven years ago, and which I remember...