Copland

Why it is renowned

Copland has sold its amplifiers abroad since the 1990s, when the CTA401 valve amplifier found buyers well beyond Denmark.¹ Today it has distributors in more than twenty countries, among them Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Canada, Australia, Malaysia and Argentina.² The maker reports that Hi-Fi News named the CTA407 an Outstanding Product in its November 2023 issue, and that the CSA70 won a Diapason d'Or award in Paris in 2023.³

The story

Ole Møller began at Ortofon, working on phono cartridges, cutter heads and low-noise amplifiers for the recording industry, before founding Copland in Copenhagen in 1984.¹ Its first product that year was the CTA15, a 12-watt-a-channel valve power amplifier.¹⁴ From 1990 the Swedish firm Xena Audio built Copland designs under licence for more than a decade; in 2001 production moved back to a factory outside Copenhagen.¹

In 1993 the CSA14 introduced Copland's hybrid circuit, a valve input stage direct-coupled to a solid-state Class A output, which carried a line of "CSA" amplifiers.¹ The first CD player, the CDA288, followed in 1996, designed with Morten Simonson, formerly of Philips.¹⁴

What to know it by

• CTA151984Ole MøllerValve power amplifier, the first Copland
• CTA4011990Integrated valve amplifier that set the look of the range
• CSA141993First hybrid valve and solid-state amplifier
• CTA4052005Integrated valve amplifier
• CTA407Integrated valve amplifier with automatic bias and a phono stage
• CSA70Integrated amplifier with DAC, 70 watts a channel