copland old or pioneer new

Never heard any of those players but would say, with very little doubt, that for cd the Copland should be the best player.
If you want to also play dvd and sacd then the pioneer, of course.

I used to own the Copland CDA289 and enjoyed it very much. However reviews on the 288 were a bit of a mixed bag, some folks calling it a bit "cold and clinical". I never heard it though and so can't comment. I would imagine, however, that for standard redbook playback it should be better than a midfi player like the Pioneer. However as suggested above, if sacd or dvd-a is on your agenda, the Copland won't play either of those formats.

I've heard the Copland many times different places only on tube gear and I think it socks!!!

Mecanical presentation and not palpable at all. Colourless like my Cambridge Azur 640C which I prefer a lot though compared to this player.

However, it looks great and are built to stand a war like Teac, but just as bad as this companys cdp'ers....

Tadman