Copper


One Size Doesn’t Fit All: Paul McGowan’s Favori...

Issue 205Paul's Place

When it comes to high-end audio, we can all agree that there's a huge obsession with which pieces of gear sound the way we hope for. Some of us prefer the...

Impex Reissues the Bossa Nova Jazz Classic Getz...

Issue 205Frankly Speaking

Getz/Gilberto is one of the most well-known and well-loved jazz records of all time. Rightfully so: the 1964 Verve release by Stan Getz and João Gilberto is one of the...

Behind the Scenes at Florida International Audi...

Issue 205Frankly Speaking

How do you cover a show that you weren’t able to go to? There are a few options: contact the manufacturers who were there and find out what they were...

Jazz Trumpeter Gabriel Mervine Releases Two New...

Issue 205Octave Pitch

Jazz trumpet virtuoso Gabriel Mervine has released two new albums for Octave Records: See Somethin’ and I Wish You Love, both recorded using Octave’s Pure DSD 256 recording system. See...

CanJam 2024, Part One: Diversity in All Things ...

Issue 205Show Report

CanJam is an audio show dedicated to headphones and their associated components: headphone amps, DACs, cables and accessories. It’s the premier show of its kind, with events in New York,...

Table of Contents – Issue 205

Issue 205Opening Salvo

“I kicked off my shoes and felt the good earth under my feet/I loosened my tie and felt what it feels like to breathe” – the Association, “Time for Livin’”...

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A Visit to Loudspeaker Maker Pure Emotion Audio...

Issue 205Featured

Copper has an exchange program with FIDELITY magazine (and others), where we share articles, including this one, between publications. Curiously enough, SPL is rarely considered a criterion when defining what characterizes an exquisite,...

Folk Alliance Really Is International

Issue 205Wayne's Words

Five Days and Nights of Intimate Global Music, Part One One afternoon last weekend during the Folk Alliance International (FAI) 36th annual conference in Kansas City, Missouri, one of the...

A Magnificent WAVAC Audio Lab Amplifier, and Vi...

Issue 205From The Listening Chair

I have noted before that I do not have the benefit of having a photography studio to work from. Still, I almost always prefer to photograph gear in my home...

Vampire Hunting, Part Two: What Is Running Up O...

Issue 205Featured

In Issue 203, I provided an introduction to the “vampires” that live in our home, electronic devices that are consuming power while plugged in and idle or on standby. Today,...

The Inveniem Company: Dedicated to Preserving a...

Issue 205Disciples of Sound

On his recent appearance on The Howard Stern Show, Bruce Springsteen commented on how difficult it would be for him to launch his career today; that the structure of the...

Test Records and Demo Discs, Part One

Issue 205Audio Anthropology

In the days before digital music, the primary medium for sound reproduction was records. Sure, there were some who preferred reel-to-reel tapes, but they were in the minority. The turntable...

Motorola Madness

Issue 205Audio Anthropology

Above: a Radio News 1925 artist's conception of what Nikola Tesla's wireless power transmission system might have looked like in the future. Courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Frank R. Paul/public domain.  ...

Walk This Way

Issue 205Parting Shot

A contrast in semi-parallel lines in Warren, Arizona.

Treasures From the Vinyl Vault, Part Three

FeaturedIssue 205

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 my series Treasures from the Vinyl...

The Big Bang Theory

Issue 205Copper Classics / The Mindful Melophile

As I’ve mentioned before in this column, when I was very young and first started listening to music I was initially fascinated by “big” music – stereo recordings of large...

PS Audio in the News

Issue 205News and Reviews

The Absolute Sound posted a video review of the StellarGold DAC. Click on this link to check out Adrian Alexander’s coverage. He noted, “the soundstage was huge…it brought out sounds...

In Memory of Tony Cordesman

Issue 204Frankly Speaking

Tony Cordesman was a friend to me, and to so many in the industry. He wasn’t just one of the finest audio reviewers ever; I think he’s one of the...

Table of Contents – Issue 204

Issue 204Opening Salvo

“Just because I wrote the song doesn’t mean I know what it means.” – Lou Reed In this issue: I talk with Steve Morris of Streamline HiFi, who hand builds...

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Erik Deutsch, Theo Bleckmann and Sly5thAve Delv...

Issue 204Octave Pitch

Reason by Erik Deutsch, Theo Bleckmann and Sly5thAve makes jazz, pop and avant-garde flavors into a compelling musical adventure. Recorded live at Dazzle, one of Boulder, Colorado’s premier performance venues,...

A Visit to the Warsaw Audio Video Show

Issue 204Natural Born Kessler

While Munich’s High-End Show still dominates the European hi-fi show circuit, the Audio Video Show in Warsaw, which took place from October 27th to 29th, 2023, is a serious rival....

Revisiting The Youngbloods' Elephant Mountain

Issue 204Twisted Systems

The Youngbloods – Elephant Mountain (RCA IMP6051) Released April 1969 by RCA RecordsRe-mastered 2023 by Kevin Gray at Cohearent AudioSourced from original master tapesPressed on 180-gram vinyl at Record Technology,...

Steve Conte and The Concrete Jangle: The Sound ...

Issue 204Disciples of Sound

There are certain artists who just define what a New York City rock song should sound like. These songs have attitude and grit, but find a way to sparkle and...

Making Time for Music

Issue 204Paul's Posts

In our fast-paced world, the simple act of taking some quality time to immerse oneself in music has increasingly become a rare luxury. Yet, it is within this very act...

Hitchhiking With Alice Cooper

Issue 204Copper Classics: True-Life Rock Tales

It was late 1968 when my friend, the late Barry Byrens, said to me, “Linc,” (he loved calling me that, because I looked like Linc in the TV show The Mod...

Behind the Scenes at Music’s Biggest Night: The...

Issue 204Show Report

The Crypto.com Arena (or the Staples Center, if you’re old school in downtown Los Angeles), is an imposing structure, appearing even more starkly colossal when devoid of Lakers, Clippers, or...

From Raffi to Dylan With My Grandson

Issue 204Wayne's Words

Steely Dan is Served with Mushed Yams For the last seven months I've been scheming how to shape my grandson Ezra's musical tastes. First, I'd like to say, when people...

The 2024 NAMM Show: A Very Big Event for Music ...

Issue 204Show Report

Last January 25-28, the National Association of Music Merchants (NAMM) gathered all types of music makers together for the 2024 NAMM Show at the Anaheim Convention Center in California. It featured all...

Streamline HiFi’s Steve Morris: Bringing Audio ...

Issue 204Frankly Speaking

For many of us, our first exposure to hi-fi was via our parents’ music systems, more often than not one of those big consoles that had a tuner, turntable, speakers...

Start Soon, Earn More!

Issue 204Audio Anthropology

    Fisher made 500 Series receivers, but who knew they made 500 Series tube radios also? This gorgeous specimen is courtesy of Wikimedia Commons/Gregory F. Maxwell.     What...

Winds of Change

Issue 204Parting Shot

This photo was taken on the way back to San Diego from the January 2024 NAMM show. These clouds were the first signs of the tempest soon to follow.

PS Audio in the News

Issue 204News and Reviews

A number of PS Audio products won 2024 Editors’ Choice Awards from The Absolute Sound. The products that received this accolade include the Stellar S300 stereo power amplifier, Stellar M1200 mono power...

How I Fell In Love With Korean TV Soundtracks

Issue 204Frankly Speaking

I’d been in something of a musical rut. I’d listen to friends’ musical recommendations and halfheartedly poke around for new music on streaming services, but nothing was really doing it...

Octave Records Releases Audiophile Masters Volu...

Issue 204Octave Pitch

Octave Records has released Audiophile Masters Volume IX, the latest in its series of reference-quality music-sampler recordings. This collection is focused on acoustic-based performances, ranging from the solo acoustic guitar...

In Praise of Live Music

Issue 204Featured

Perhaps that’s an odd title for a magazine that caters primarily to an audience of audiophiles and music collectors. So let me offer a bit of background. I fell in...

Capturing Jazz Lightning In a Bottle: Recording...

Issue 203Featured

As one of the first musical art forms created in the US to attain worldwide acclaim and acceptance, jazz straddles the line between the challengingly cerebral harmonic complexity found in...

The Unmeasurable Aspects of High-End Audio

Issue 203Paul's Place

In our world of high-end audio, we often find ourselves tangled in the web of specifications, measurements, and tangible data. As a self-admitted crazy audiophile and a 50-year veteran in...

Top Dog

Issue 203Copper Classics

Man has always competed to be Top Dog. In the days when caves were homes, the guy with the biggest club was Top Dog. As we became more civilized, the man...

PS Audio in the News

Issue 203News and Reviews

The DirectStream DAC MK2 received a 2023 Brutus Award from Dave and Carol Clark at Positive Feedback. In the review Dave noted: “The DirectStream DAC MK2 is a major improvement...

All Dolled Up

Issue 203Audio Anthropology

  What the...? This is a homemade "Sleepy Time Bed Radio" found at a meet sponsored by the Mid-Atlantic Antique Radio Club (MAARC) about 20 years ago. He dreams of vacuum...

Handel’s Messiah

Issue 203Music'al Notes

My wife and I have a subscription to the New York Philharmonic. I love the place where they play, now named the David Geffen Hall, because they have finally (after...

VAC’s Statement 452iQ Musicbloc Power Amplifier

Issue 203From The LIstening Chair

I don’t have a photography studio and it likely shows. Still, I don’t like taking what I consider to be serious photos of audio gear in the field. Instead, I...

Born to be Wild

Issue 203Parting Shot

A smiling member of the Leporidae family greets visitors to Gold Ridge Organic Farms in Sebastopol, California.

The girl genius of boygenius

Issue 203Wayne's Words

My interest in boygenius had already been piqued when one of my students came to class one morning with a T-shirt from a concert she had seen over the weekend....

Billy Joel Exhibit Debuts at the Long Island Mu...

Issue 203Frankly Speaking

Billy Joel is one of Long Island’s greatest musical heroes, along with the likes of Louis Armstrong, Barbra Streisand, Carole King, Clive Davis, Perry Como, EPMD, Tony Bennett, and Mariah...

Creating a Musical World With the Slambovian Ci...

Issue 203Frankly Speaking

I first heard about the Slambovian Circus of Dreams, aka the Slambovians, a few years ago, from the guys and gal in the band I’m in. They were raving about...

Table of Contents – Issue 203

Issue 203Opening Salvo

Tony Cordesman was a great friend to those of us at PS Audio and to so many in the industry, and we deeply mourn his passing on January 29 at...

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Magnepan’s Jim Winey: In Memoriam

Issue 203Frankly Speaking

I heard the news on January 16 – Jim Winey, the founder of Magnepan, maker of Magneplanar loudspeakers, had passed away at age 89. As I’m sure so many in...