Price Paid:  $2000.00 from Applause Toronto

Summary:
Well, the recent review of the Copland 266 CD Player, prompts me to write this update, if you will. I wrote here originally back in September 1998 about how great this CD player was. Frankly, it still is terrific today!! I know I wouldn't qualify as an audiophile since I still own the equipment I had in 1998, and haven't replaced it, or plan to until something major happens to it. Heck, Applause in Toronto (where I bought it) doesn't carry Copland; Copland doesn't make the unit anymore; Listener Magazine which first turned me on the Copland doesn't exist. This sounds strangely "old guy" for someone who considers himself a "kid" but audio, like so many other things these days, is a very fast changing and pretty strange. Anyway, Copland stuff is terrific, and nothing I have heard from Musical Fidelity; Audio Research; BAT or Audio Note, though very good, makes me want to run off to spend inordinate amounts of money on new stuff. Oh, wait a minute, I do buy new stuff, tons and tons of CDs to play on the glorious ancient Copland integrated amp and CD player. The party continues....

Strengths:
Beatifully made, nice to look at, totally natural sound, detailed, but no digititis at all.

Weaknesses:
Not made anymore.

Similar Products Used:
ARC, MF, Linn, Simm, BAT,McIntosh

Price Paid:  $0.00

Summary:
Not much to say after all these comments. The Copland 266 just makes you listen to the music. (Of course at the beginning, you try to hear all the details of the music to see if you were not simply crazy to spend 2OOO boxs on a CD player!!!) But after that, you just have to enjoy a very very musical but yet neutral sound. My system: Linn Kairn SPS, Audiolab 8000 PX, Copland CDA 266, Linn Keilidhs.

Strengths:
Fluidity and musicality

Weaknesses:
noone (maybe sometimes too neutral?, if it's a weakness...)

Price Paid:  $1800.00

Summary:
It was a purchase done on an impulse but I have not regretted it. The CD266 is very musical, any other CD player I have heard are flat and boring compared to it, without going over the top or becoming annoying. There may be better players on the market, but you would have to pay a lot more. It took some time to burn in though, and sounded awful just out of the box.

Strengths:
very musical

Weaknesses:
none

Similar Products Used:
Mikromega Stage 1 Sony CDX20ES 2 different Denon something Arcam Alpha CD 1

Price Paid:  $600.00 from prvate 2nd hand

Summary:
Like your other reviewers,I did the rounds of similarly priced cometitors.Meridian 506 accurate but too polite,Naim cd5 dynamic but too loose,Cyrus cd7+PSX too cold and analytical.The 266 seemed just right dynamic but accurate and musical.It's well built and looks good too.It's been superseded by the 277 but is still out there 2nd,do yourself a favour and find one

Strengths:
dynamic but very musical,suits every type of music.

Weaknesses:
The display is poor and loading noisy,who cares.

Similar Products Used:
none

Summary:
ProAc's are quite the revealing speaker - so revealing that the harshness and brittleness of my 7-year old Denon DCD-1290 was more than I could bear. The solution was simple enough - replace the source. With a budget of around $2200 Canadian (flexible enough that if something was worth extra cash, it would get considered), I set out looking for a solid, smooth, single-disc machine. HDCD was irrelevant at the outset since I only had 1 HDCD pressing.
The first deletion was the entire Arcam Alpha line (listened to both 8SE and 9) - much too flat and brittle. Not a big improvement on the Denon, and surely not worth the $$$. The Anthem CD1 was quite nice at $2300 - much more dimensional and involving. But not good enough for that much cash.

Distinctive Audio answered the call best - "...just buy the Copland 266..."! Well, yeah, but what else is available for around $2k...? So right there and then, an A/B/C comparison: A=Teac VRDS ?T1? transport with Enlightened Audio Designs DSP-1000 DAC, B=Classe .5 [HDCD], and C=Copland 266 [HDCD]. All were hooked up with Transparent cable to an Sonic Frontiers preamp, SimAudio power amp, and ProAc 2.5 speakers.

A: Too prominent in the upper-midrange, lack of bass depth, and harsh overall
C: Very smooth, deep strong bass, transparent, detailed, wonderful, tubey
B: Similar to the Copland, but somewhat rougher, more distorted, more transistor-like

Yes, I went from A straight to C, and then back to B just to have a quicker comparison between the opposition and the 266.

Know what...? Brian (gent at Dist.Aud.) was right - I bought the 266 for $2250 (floor demo) and it's quite the wonderful machine. Only thing is, the other 266's and even the 288 had crummy alignment between the drawer and the front panel, so much that on the 288 you could barely squeeze a piece of paper between the top of the drawer and the faceplate - BAD! I lucked out because on the 266 that I paid for, the drawer alignment is right on.

Nuff said - 5 stars for Copland, 4.5 for the Classe, and 3 for the Teac/EAD.

Thanks to Brian, Rheal, and Distinctive Audio...! And thanks for the 4 HDCD CD's...! Nice folks to do business with.