Essays

Essays


  • How I Became an Audiophile

    From childhood 78s on a Nebraska farm to high-end speakers decades later, Lawrence Schenbeckโ€™s lifelong journey with music and gear shows how deep listeningโ€”and deeper friendshipsโ€”make the audiophile pursuit truly meaningful.

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  • The 1985 Effect

    J. Coleโ€™s โ€œ1985โ€ casts a long shadow over hip-hopโ€™s younger generation, warning of fleeting fame in an era dominated by SoundCloud rebels. This deep-dive traces the turbulent rise and haunting legacy of rapโ€™s new wave.

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  • The Tube Illusion ?

    Skeptical of audioโ€™s placebo effect, Jonson Lee tested AGD Productionsโ€™ class-D Audion ampsโ€”disguised as glowing tubesโ€”and found their stunning design inseparable from their sonic magic, both subtly shaping the listening experience.

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  • How Do You Listen to Music?

    Reflecting on how we hear music, this Copper Magazine piece explores selective listeningโ€”from favoring lyrics or solos to feeling sound with the whole bodyโ€”and highlights Evelyn Glennieโ€™s deaf-but-deep approach to truly experiencing music.

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  • ‘I could power the Acura Stage at Jazz Fest pretty easily’: An audiophile’s Garden District home

    John Gishโ€™s Garden District home hosts a mind-blowing, museum-worthy high-end audio system featuring 6-foot German speakers, 30,000 LPs, and 20,000 filmsโ€”making it part private concert hall, part cinema, and all passion project.

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  • Treasures from the Vinyl Vault, Part 5

    Welcome to my series Treasures from the Vinyl Vault. In it, I will feature select gems from my approximately 12,000 ever-growing vinyl collection, accumulated over a 45-year period and counting.

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  • The DUALITY of Sinรฉad O’Connor

    In this moving tribute, Sinรฉad Oโ€™Connorโ€™s battles with trauma, fame, and faith are laid bareโ€”yet itโ€™s her transcendent voice and fierce vulnerability that ultimately defined a life lived beyond the grasp of convention.

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  • How To Improve Your Sound System With Your Mind, Part 2

    The second part of this insightful series explores how Aversions, Desires, and Expectations subtly sabotage our music enjoymentโ€”arguing that true listening begins only when we quiet the critical voice in our head.

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  • Boogie With Canned Heat: Thank You Henry

    Reflecting on his first Fillmore East show in 1968, Twisted Sister’s Jay Jay French recalls how Canned Heatโ€™s Henry Vestine provided the inspiration he neededโ€”a blue-collar blues guitarist whose tone and style were accessible enough to emulate and transformative for a budding player.

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  • How To Improve Your Sound System With Your Mind, Part 1

    Jonson Lee argues that the real reason your audio system sounds โ€œmehโ€ might not be your gear or setupโ€”itโ€™s your thoughts: aversions, desires, and expectations, which sabotage the listening experience.

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  • Rolling with the Charts: Billboardโ€™s Epic Journey

    From swing-era surveys to streaming farms, the Billboard charts have tracked musicโ€™s biggest hitsโ€”and biggest controversiesโ€”for over 80 years, navigating shifts in technology, taste, and transparency with every note.

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  • Rock Chronicles, Part 9 โ€” Badfinger’s Tragic Story Begins

    Apple Recordsโ€™ prodigal sons Badfinger were poised to inherit the Beatles’ mantleโ€”complete with George Harrisonโ€™s guiding handโ€”yet behind the scenes, turmoil, label neglect, and internal fractures began unraveling their golden opportunity.

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  • U2 to inhabit its own planet by end of year

    U2 returns to Vegas to baptize the audacious MSG Sphere, but without founding drummer Larry Mullen Jr.โ€”a symbolic rift in their ‘band of brothers’ mythology that casts shadows over a dazzling reinvention.

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  • Rock Chronicles, Part 8 โ€” Paul McCartney saves the Poisoned Iveys (temporarily)

    George Harrison championed them, Paul McCartney produced their debut hit, and Apple Records signed themโ€”yet the Iveys (soon to be Badfinger) nearly vanished before they began, victims of internal rifts and corporate reshuffling.

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  • Treasures from the Vinyl Vault, Part 4

    Welcome to my series Treasures from the Vinyl Vault. In it, I will feature select gems from my approximately 12,000 ever-growing vinyl collection, accumulated over a 45-year period and counting.

    Read More