Copland CTA 405 Integrated Amp - an interesting prospect?

Hi Chaps,

Please forgive the explanatory pre-amble:

Got half an eye on downsizing my amps a bit. I recently moved from a four-bed house to a flat and space is at a premium. I'm considering selling my monoblocks and getting a stereo power amp instead (i.e. one that will fit in a rack). Also need something a bit juicier than 18w SET's too, because they sound less powerful than before. The new concrete floor & ceiling doesn't produce the bass bloom that the suspended floors in my old house did.

Finding one of suitable quality, at a limited budget (say £1500) is proving difficult though - the current shortlist is very.....short. Want to try either EL34's or KT88's this time.

Integrateds are also a possibility, but they'll have to be something special in order to match my ARC/BAT/SET combo for sound & flexibility. One that has really caught my eye is the new Copland CTA 405 integrated amp http://www.copland.dk/large/large_405.htm. Not sure if many of you have seen it yet (Hi-Fi Choice "reviewed" it recently). It costs £2,300, which sounds like a lot, but it has quite a few features that caught my eye:

Valve pre-amp stage
MM valve phono stage. Yes - a valve phono stage!
50wpc KT88 push-pull output stage
Large "custom made" output transformers for each channel
Seperate torroid for analogue/digital circuits.
Remote control

All in a very neat/minimalist Scandinavian package (which isn't really to my tastes but looks alright). Just struck me as a very interesting prospect at the price. Shame about the ultra-generic $5 ALPS pot though. Always depressing to see it in kit of this price. IMHO quality resistive attenuators should be considered a bare minimum in this price range.

Now, I haven't heard the 405 yet but I wanted to know if anyone here has any experience with this amp? I'd love to hear your thoughts/comments on it.

Thanks,
DT

 

Heard a lot of EL34 and KT88 amps (and 6550 too), but not this one, unfortunately.

Heard a few copland amps too - lasting impression was of beautiful finish especially.

Just wanted to say not to ignore EL84, which if used in high enough multiples can give you plenty of power.

 

Assuming it does the business soundwise, that's a lot of amp for the money I'd have thought (and Copland gear is superbly built). All its missing is tone controls . If it had those It'd be just about perfect

 

i've got Copland 301 pre amp which sounds great and is built amazingly well.

For your dilmena don't rule out a Prima Luna Prologue 2

 

No experience of that model, but I do have the older 401 integrated. That also has the valve phono stage that sounds great to my ears. The build is lovely, and the transformers are very large and very heavy, which probably accounts for the weight; 22Kg! I wanted to get back to a single box after pre-power combos, and I'm pretty happy with it. Mine is EL34 and only about 25wpc I think, but fine with my Tannoys. Not sure if it's jaw-droppingly good, and maybe not 'punchy', but it does everything 'nicely', and given the frequency of my previous amp changes, I've kept this quite a long time!

 

biasing Copland?

Hello!

Are the Coplands self biasing? If not, is it difficult to do it manually? What are the possibilities of changing tubes.. Can the 401 only take el34?

 

The 401 is not self-biasing - there are bias adjustment 'dials' inside. Mine had brand new el34's when I bought it and I've had no urge to change them so don't know how easy it is to set the bias - beyond me probably anyhow. Can't help you on alternative output valves I'm afraid, never read of any alternatives used in them and nothing of that kind is mentioned in the user manual.

Dave

 

Thank you. I wonder if the 402 would be better. I see it is slightly more powerful plus it has a remote. I found a recipe of how to bias it. Apparantly its not just to turn the bias dials. Most interestin gwill be if it can drive my Audionote speakers ok.