Copper


Table of Contents – Issue 201

Issue 201Opening Salvo

All of us at Copper wish everyone a happy and healthy holiday season and new year, and peace on Earth in these difficult times. Beginning with this issue you’ll see...

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Long Island’s Audio Den Opens a New Listening Room

Issue 201Featured

The Audio Den has been one of the New York Metro area’s top dealers since 1976. Like so many other retailers, they expanded into home theater and custom installation in...

High-End Audio Luminary Michael Fremer Produces...

Issue 201Frankly Speaking

Michael Fremer needs little introduction to Copper readers. He’s been a stalwart of the high-end audio industry for decades, and is currently the editor of The Tracking Angle and editor...

On the Scene at AES New York 2023

Issue 201Show Report

As Frank Doris and John Seetoo noted elsewhere in this issue, AES New York 2023 was a rousing success. The conference always has something for everyone; it’s a trade show...

Deko Entertainment: Keeping Current With Legacy...

Issue 201The Copper Interview

Our original intention was to revise and update the article and interview Ray Chelstowski did previously, to make it current for Deko’s activities in 2023. That updated article appeared in...

Octave Records Welcomes the Holidays with Guita...

Issue 201Octave Pitch

Octave Records celebrates the holidays with The Spirit of Christmas by internationally-renowned guitarist Alfredo Muro, who brings a heartfelt intimacy and virtuoso performances to a wide range of seasonal favorites....

Charlie Brown Goes to The Nutcracker With theRo...

Issue 201Octave Pitch

Octave Records warmly invites everyone to celebrate the holiday spirit with Charlie Brown Goes to The Nutcracker by the Ron LeGault quintet. The band puts a jazz spin on the...

The Kinks: The Journey – Part 2: Wrapping Up a ...

Issue 201Frankly Speaking

I’ve never made a secret of the fact that I’m a Kinks fan. I’m in good company – they’re one of the most beloved and important bands to come out...

More Coverage from the AES 2023 Convention

Issue 201Show Report

Immersive audio was the unequivocally hottest topic at AES New York, and both long-established companies and newly-formed ones were all touting their latest offerings to appeal to immersive sound aficionados....

Winter Wonderland

Issue 201Parting Shot

This photo was made in the foothills of the Patagonia Mountains of Southern Arizona. The Patagonias are the northernmost terminus of the Sierra Madre Occidental range, which runs all the...

AES New York 2023: The Audio Engineering Societ...

Issue 201Show Report

Because of COVID, I was unable to attend the Audio Engineering Society’s (AES) annual convention in 2022, so I was particularly stoked to go to AES New York 2023, held...

Johann Adolph Hasse: 18th Century Opera Star

Issue 201Copper Classics: Something Old / Something New

When your wife is a famous soprano and your best friend is Europe’s most sought-after librettist, you’re likely to have one heck of an opera-writing career. That certainly held true...

Tokyo Jazz Joints: Immersion in a Parallel Univ...

Issue 201Featured

Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles, including this one, between publications.   That smell! Nothing compares! Old record sleeves, the dust of decades past.  ...

Rockin' the Holidays

Issue 201Audio Static

Warmest wishes for a happy and healthy holiday season and new year, from all of us at Copper.

Can You Hear Me Now?

Issue 201Audio Anthropology

    In 1991 The Absolute Sound decided to do its first Guide to High-End Audio Components. I was on staff and it was my first experience working on a...

Comedy of Errors

Issue 201Copper Classics

If you’re human, you make mistakes. Sometimes they are driven by emotion, sometimes by ignorance. But you’re never going to escape them, and you’ll always be sorry you didn’t, or couldn’t,...

PS Audio in the News

Issue 201News and Reviews

Positive Feedback has a review of the Stellar Phono preamplifier in Issue 130. Michael Laurance said, “It's exciting when a component makes a tremendous difference the moment it becomes a...

Scenes and Gear from T.H.E. Show 2023

Issue 200Show Report

Our intrepid photographer/correspondent Harris Fogel was on the scene at T.H.E. Show 2023. As always, he took many photos of people and gear, and we present them here. For additional...

Then Play On

Issue 200The Run-Out Groove

  With every ending comes a new beginning.

The Future Sound of London

Issue 200Audio Static

  This cartoon originally appeared in Issue 153.

Octave Records Releases Its Latest in The Art o...

Issue 200Octave Pitch

Octave Records has released The Art of Hi-Fi Volume 03: Percussion, created to test and showcase the ability of an audio system to reproduce the dynamic impact of percussion-based music...

Steve Thompson and 1201_Alarm Create the First ...

Issue 200The Copper Interview

Composer/musician Steve Thompson and his band 1201_Alarm are about to make musical history. They will release a new album, Moonshot, on November 10 – and it was loaded onto the...

Table of Contents – Issue 200

Issue 200Opening Salvo

It’s Copper’s 200th issue! We’ve had a fantastic run of more than seven years of publishing every two weeks. It’s happened thanks to the incredible talents and efforts of our writers, contributors,...

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Living in a World of Zeroes and Ones with Syner...

Issue 200The Listening Chair

When “audiophile” Ethernet switches arrived on the scene a number of years ago, they were met with great skepticism. At the time, only a few manufacturers offered such a product....

Miles Davis: Eight Great Tracks

Issue 200Trading Eights

In 1944, as a teen trumpeter in St. Louis, Miles Davis was tapped to fill in for Art Blakey at a Billy Eckstine concert, and the pros encouraged him. So,...

The Return of theCalifornia Audio Show

Issue 200Show Report

It had been a long wait. The ninth annual California Audio Show took place in 2019, but COVID concerns forced the postponement of the 10th. While the rest of the...

Into the Groove

Issue 200Audio Anthropology

  This is an original Fillmore East program from 1971, from my personal collection.  There's a reason this is special to me... ...it was the first time I'd seen Frank...

The Seeker

Issue 201The Run-Out Groove

  This cartoon was first published in Issue 132.

How Records are Made, Part Three: Quality Control

Issue 200Revolutions Per Minute

The telephone rings. “We have a few pallets for you, can we deliver tomorrow morning?” The next morning, an 18-ton truck with a hydraulic tail lift arrives. It is July...

Back to My Reel-to-Reel Roots, Part Five: Tape ...

Issue 200Natural Born Kessler

Previous installments in this series appeared in Issues 196, 197, 198 and 199. I feel like a rabbi talking a non-Jew out of converting to Judaism. It’s incumbent on him or...

June Millington of Pioneering Rock Band Fanny, ...

Issue 200The Copper Interview

Part One and Part Two of this interview appeared in Issue 198 and Issue 199. Before the Runaways, before the Go-Go’s, before the Bangles – there was Fanny. David Bowie...

Can One Year in Music Change Your Life?

Issue 200Sitting In

What's the most important musical year of your life? The one year you can look back on right now with the fondest of recollections? For me, it's always been 1976. ...

Quantum Criminals: The Ace Steely Dan Book

Issue 200Wayne's Words

"Mr. Steely Dan" and his Cohorts, In Words and Paintings Quantum Criminals is the first book I've seen that really captures the galactic picture and microscopic fussiness, the words and music,...

Affordable High End: The Vanatoo Transparent On...

Issue 200Twisted Systems

Lately, just about every audiophile I know has three systems: a reference system, an all-around house system, and a desktop computer system. The Vanatoo Transparent One Encore Plus is a...

Deko Entertainment: Moving Rock's Legacy Forwar...

Issue 200Disciples of Sound

When Gene Simmons of the band KISS said that “Rock is dead” in 2014, it sent shock waves throughout the industry. He later clarified his comments by saying that new...

Halloween Head Shot

Issue 200Subcatgory_Parting Shot

Happy Halloween from all of us at Copper! The photograph was made through an abandoned storefront window in Bisbee, Arizona. It's part of James's “Icons and Totems” series which explores the...

Deko Entertainment: Moving Rock's Legacy Forward

Disciples of Sound

When Gene Simmons of the band KISS said that “Rock is dead” in 2014, it sent shock waves throughout the industry. He later clarified his comments by saying that new...

Treasures from the Vinyl Vault, Part One

Issue 200Featured

Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from PMA Magazine: the Power of Music and Audio.   Welcome to the first installment of Treasures from...

200 of Your Editor's All-Time Favorite Songs

Issue 200Frankly Speaking

For the 200th issue of Copper, here are 200 of my favorite songs. These aren’t all of my most-liked – that would take up a decent chunk of an iPod Classic’s hard...

Vikingbåde

Issue 199Music'al Notes

“I wish this boat would stop rocking so much,” I groaned to myself as I opened my eyes and looked in the bathroom mirror. It was only then that I...

How I Became an Audiophile

Issue 200Copper Classics: Too Much Tchaikovsky

My earliest memories of listening to recorded music go back to when I was a child living in what seemed like an enormous house on an even more enormous farm...

Table of Contents – Issue 199

Issue 199Opening Salvo

“The songwriter can make you laugh or cry He’s pumping gas at night just to survive And all he asks of you is to sing his songs And put his...

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Flaunt the Audio Imperfection

Issue 199Frankly Speaking

With a tip of the hat to China Crisis for inspiring the title. I think we can all agree that no audio system is perfect. Perhaps the biggest challenge in...

Sound Waves and the Roaring Twenties: The Legac...

Issue 199Featured

Copper has an exchange program with selected magazines, where we share articles, including this one, between publications. This one's from PMA Magazine: the Power of Music and Audio.   In the early 20th century, particularly the...

A Classic Turntable's Forgotten Roots: the AR XA

Issue 199Featured

When the AR XA turntable came out in 1961, it was an instant classic – almost immune to external shocks and vibrations, low in rumble, and priced at a shockingly...

The Audio Butterfly Effect

Issue 199Featured

The best-fitting suit is a well-tailored one. You likely would never expect to try on a garment in a store and have it fit perfectly, if taken randomly from just...

Unusual Madrigals

Issue 199Something Old / Something New

“Madrigal” is one of those words that showed up in European music under vague circumstances, then stuck around long enough to change its meaning a few times. Most of us...

How Records are Made, Part Two: Plating and Pre...

Issue 199Revolutions Per Minute

   The disk mastering stage, discussed in detail in Part One (Issue 198) was the last stage permitting intentional changes to the sound of the final product, for aesthetic or...

Crossover Design Basics

Issue 199Speaker Stories

Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles, including this one, between publications.   A point source is the theoretical ideal; why, then, do almost all loudspeakers...

The Jewish Cemetery

Music'al Notes

The Jewish cemetery in Shettleston, Glasgow is a miserable place. Not because of what it is but because of its location. For some reason it is always raining in this...