Soundstage, mids, highs, instrument placement & focus

Cannot think of anything worth mentioning

A follow up on the previous review .. Taking my words back about bass limitations.. Upgraded this baby w/ Mullard E88CC NOS in the line stage and replaced the ML output - firstly w/ AMC 2100e (re-capped) and now w/ Leak ST60 (re-tubed for now ;-)) .. Musical Fidelity as source .. Shear majic !

Similar Products Used:

Threshold, Rotel

Finish,looks,sound

To expencive

I haven´t owned this one,just borrowed it from a dealer.
So the tubes woren´t burned in properly.
So i hade it one for approxemently 100 houers.
It changed the image quite radicaly from depth to height.
This is a realy fine pre-amp sounds very nice.
But it´s a little "gray" so if it was half the price it, would be five star .
Maybe it´s to short to burn in the tubes for 100 h.
So i think i goto look fore some thing more price worth.

Similar Products Used:

Thule,Densen,Nad,Proton

Clarity, soundstage, neutrality, detail

Has only MM phono

I listened to a few preamps before I heard this one : Linn, SimAudio... nothing to say against them. But I remember getting this one home and putting on a disc my kids like a lot. " Hey, " they said, " there's a storm at the beginning of the first song ; you can hear rain and thunder. We never heard that before. " I heard it too. What had been confusion and mud turned out to make sense after all.

That's pretty much the story on this preamp : you can hear more, and so the music makes more sense. In addition, the Copland puts up a terrific soundstage, wide, deep and high. Its phono section is excellent too--I heard bass I'd never heard before on LPs. Unfortunately I'll need a stepup if I want to run a low-output moving coil cartridge into it.

I use it with a SimAudio Celeste W-4070SE, a solid state amp, with a Van den Hul The Second to link them, and the combination sounds gorgeous.

Excellent fully Valve Phonostage. Magnificent construction and circuit design. Strong dynamics, low distortion, liquid clarity exempt of all agressiveness.

Must be matched carfully with the right power amplifier. Sounds awfull with solid state Power amplifier. Does not have XLR (balanced) inputs or outputs

I have tied quite a few different systems, and the Copland CTA 310 Pre amp, wasn't the first thing that atracted me to Copland. I started with the CDA 288 Cd player which I had auditioned in a HIFI store using the CTA 301, the Magnificent CTA 505 Valve power amplifier and a pair of Chario Academy Speakers. The Cd player was Being compaired with a Naim CDX and a Classé, all three cd player were HDCD compatible - a novilty at the time. I was so impressed that I bought the CD player on the spot.

Getting home and connecting it to my System all Luxman electronics and a pair of Mission 754 speakers.I was a little disappointed, with the sound. After fiddling about for about month I finally convinced my.....wife that the only reasonable thing to do was to buy the compleat system. Which I did. I am very happy with the sound of these fine elements, in five years have givem nothing but enormouse amount of pleasure.

Having kept the Luxman system I also bought a pair of Klipsch Horn, Goertz Silver interconnects and Speaker cables. My local HIFI store did lend me a Cary SLP-50B Pre Amp and CAD-572SE to test with my Klipsch (he had them connected to a pair of Alon's) the sound on both speakers was very dissapointing. I would like to try a pair of CAD-805C's. I have tried mixing my differnt element together, but the Copland system on it's own gives the overall best sound.
I mostly listen to Opera and some Orchester, Symphony a little jazz.

I highly recommend this system for analogue listeners as the Phonostage of the preamplifier is really first class.

I wouldn't recommend this system for Heavy metel etc...

Similar Products Used:

Cary SLP-50B, LUXMAN C-5

Transperancy, smooth highs, tight, deep bass

could use more mid-range warmth

The Copland is an all tube design preamp. Its line level amplification is achieved by Sovtec 6922 double triodes, one in each channel. The RIAA section is composed of 2 matched pair of 12AX7 (Sovtec) double triodes in shunt regulated push-pull. It is now available with remote control.

I have found the Copland to be smooth and detailed with just a little bit of warmth in its overall presentation. It could use some more mid-range warmth but this would probably take away from its ability to reproduce tight, deep bass which is a problem for most tube preamps - at least the ones I've tried, (e.g.,BAT 3kvi). I also tried the Moon P-3 before buying the Copland and I found the former to be too dry and dull. I needed a preamp that would present the music in a fuller, warmer texture. This is especially important for me because the majority of CD's I have are not audiophile recordings. Don't get me wrong, this unit will not sacrifice detail and transperancy to add warmth. Somehow you are able to achieve the best of both worlds. This is what impresses me the most about this preamp. I believe its a gem waiting to be discovered in North America. In Europe, it has received excellent reviews including 5 star best buy recommendations in British HI-Fi magazines. Its too bad it doesn't get the exposure it deserves in the likes of Stereophile. At 3,200.00 Canadian, this is a steal. A friend of mine compared it to the Audio Research LS 15 ($4,500.00 Canadian) and could not tell the two units apart. They are very similar in their musical presentation - except the Copland is about $1,300.00 cheaper. If you are looking for a tubed preamp, give this one a try.

Associated equipment:

Meridian 506 cd player
Moon W-5 power amp
Totem Mani-2 speakers
Cardass Quadlink5 interconnects and speaker cable

Similar Products Used:

BAT 3Kvi, Moon P-3,

Rich and clear soundstage. Very sweet mids and treble. Clean bass. Suits all kinds of music. Great build and overall quality impression. Good looking!

I little lack of control in sub bass area? No remote control (available on new models)

I bought this used (6 months old) preamp from a dealer in Sweden. Actually, this is the first audio equipment I´ve been happy with for more than 2 years. It still gives me that joyfull feeling every time I listen to music. And my impression is that it will last for eternity. Really heavy duty build!

There is not a single weakness I can point out as a disturbing one. My music taste covers almost everything from classical to rock´n roll. This Copland CTA301mkII can handle it all. You´ll never get tired! And never bored either!

Well, it´s not really cheap, but in my oppinion worth every penny, and a good investment. (around 1.500,- usd. in Sweden)

Other equipment used:
CD-player: Sony CDP XA-30 ES
Tube power amp: Edison 60
DIY speakers with Accuton 5" ceramic drivers and Raven ribbons.
Subwoofer with Scanspeak 10" drivers.

Best regards,
Ingmar Benjaminsson

Similar Products Used:

Quad 34, Tandberg 38A, Sentec SC-9

Follow up:

This is a quick follow up, but things have happend. The Quad 99 is very, very sensitive to placement (the copland is not), and after some adjustments and new vibration absorbers, I really find the Quad99 to be the best allaround choice (im relieved, puh). Lacking is soundstage? Not anymore! Get up and go? Very much! The Copland is a little faster and has a bigger soundstage but it lacks in detail and neutrality compared to the Quad99, especially in the high and low range.

I still rate the Copland as one of the best at the price. Its pretty much a matter of taste.

Copland is great, to bad you cant buy them new anymore (ops, did I say to much). Yes its true. The Designer and the factory dont agree, so Copland is down for now and perhaps for good. Its a loss...

?

This is the best pre amp I've ever heard. I used to own one, but it broke down because of a fire we had some months ago! Well, I miss it. This is a good preamp and it works fine with solid state pwr amps too. Im using The new Quad pre now and its pretty good, but its lacking a bit in "get up and go" and soundstage. The copland is better. Buy it! I give it four stars because there are probobly better pre amps to but, but at the price, its a dream.

Systems tested with 301 mkII (:

1
cd: Denon dcd-1015
cd: Copland Cda 266
Spk: audio pro a4.14 zero "activ spk"
Cbl: Supra cables

2
cd: Copland Cda 266
Pwr: Quad 99
Spk: Dynaudio contour 1.3se

Similar Products Used:

Quad 77 - 99, Audio Analouge, linn, naim

Very detailed preamp, with a beautiful 3D, transperant soundstage, sweet highs

Lacking in the bass. Controls look solid, but feel flimsy, easy to beak

What an improvement on the Thershold, which i view highly! New sounds, depth of soundstage, the sweet highs, did not have much time to listen until now. Tried some Roger Hodgson, Coldplay, Bob James on it - magic ! Bass is gone though - compared to the Threshold .. Config : Rotel RCD 991, Mark Levinson 27.5, Sonus Faber Concerto (biwired), top of the range IXOS - interconnects, speaker.

Similar Products Used:

Threshold Fet2

Sound :-) details etc blabla

No XLR in/out

In my system, I compared the Copland with the electro-
companiet.
My system:

CD: Myryad MC100
Amp: Spectron Musician
Speakers: Dunlavy Athena.

Whaddayoumean expensive. It's $1600 in the Netherlands. OK,
it aint no peanuts, but hifi costs. For a pre with this
sound-quality, I don't think it's expensive.

OK, comparison:
the EC4.7 IN MY SYSTEM was to "warm" like an imitation of
the classic old tube sound. This is a fine pre-amp if you've
got a harsh sounding system, but it just didn't fit in mine.
The Copland on the other hand sounds neutral, very fast
response, tight bass and sweat voices. Lot's of detail too.
It was a huge step up from my densen Beat B100, which I
was using as a passive amp (attenuator & source select
only :-))
The soundstage opened up impressively, not just from left
to right but also more depth. It has less bass than the EC,
but much tighter and therefore better sounding (in my
system). My system is ready now (for now). I'm enjoying
this copland a great deal.
Without all the hifi-babble, it just sounds great.

BTW. I do not really know whether or not missing XLR is
a weakness. My spectron manual says one should only use
XLR when really long cables are needed. With short
cables, RCA would sound better (in the case of my spectron)

Just give it a listen

Similar Products Used:

Electrocompaniet ec4.7