Amp - preamp or integrated


This topic has appeared in the past but I like to hear audiophile suggestions specially if they honest. I currently have the Rogue Chronus Magnum II. With Vandersteen 2 sig. Soon I will sell the house and will have some extra $ for upgrades. I have 4 questions:

Is the amp/ pre amp a better way to go than integrated? Two choices Rogue and Parasound.
Is the mono blocks / preamp an even better way to go?
If I decide to go with mono blocks, due budget considerations , I will be looking at used or an small company/audio engineer where I can keep the cost under 3000. If I go with a small company product, how do I know it is a good quality prod. Vs big companies like Rogue etc?

All your comments to all or any of my questions is highly appreciated. Thanks
128x128lobinero
First, I estimate that my budget for new amp /pre amp or integrated will be around 5K after selling my Rogue Chronus Mag 2.  McIntosh would be out of range unless I get a good deal on used ones. 
My Rogue integrated although 4 yrs old, the tubes have low hrs. I barely put 10- 15 hrs per month. Short of 10k hrs they claim to last. Adding a subwoofer was brought up in this thread also. 
Preamp Audio-gd Master 1. About 2k shippment included. Someone compared it with some much more expensive Krell preamp saying the M1 blew it out of the water. Some others believe it can easily compete with preamps costing 3 to 4 times its price. Look for it on Internet. 

Class D Power Amp Nord Stereo SE (dual mono) with Rev D boards. About 2.5k shippment included. Someones compared it with amps costing 50k or more. Look for it on Internet. 

Hulgich Audio won the best sounding stand award in the Melbourne Hifi Show in 2017 and second place in 2018, with Nord amps and an Audio-gd DAC, competing against systems costing up to 500k. And the Nord amp used had Rev C boards, not the Rev D ones. Ive had both and Rev D is much better.

Do your research. You can have a 4.5k preamp-amp combination that can easily compete with multi thousands systems. You wont regret it. 
Im sorry, the Audio-gd Master 1 will cost you about 1.5k if you buy it from Audio-gd website directly. 
M1 + Nord = about 4k, a HiFi steal
Lobinero, for me,i would always a integrate amp.: I had Esoteric F0-5 (nice stuff) but it missed in the depht. Mid and high were clear. Before i had Esoteric ,i used Perreaux 250i , Unison research 845...still good apms but always the same problem :Problems with low, for the rest oké .
Till my best friend Tom arrived with the Audio Note M5, preamp, and the GamuT D200. The sound was brilliant: a very good representation of high,mid and low. Also more holographic. Low was better dan with the integrate’s. He showed me,the difference between an integrate an pre/power. If you read reviews of integrate amps like: dan D’Agostini, Dartzeel...;;the same problems with low. But thaks to Tom, i was in the 7th heaven. And connected to “his” Ilumnia Magister . Great!!!!
For your budget, I’d stay with the rogue unless:
1: you need more power. Do you have the KT120’s? Get the 120’s
2: Do you need to tighten up the bass?
3: Do you want to go SS?
I had the same amp with the kt120’s and it was a great amp until I changed speakers and the bass wasn’t controlled enough for me. I did change the phono and preamp section tubes and switched the internal wire for 4 ohm speakers which helped in the bass.
I went with the Hegel integrated amp which had 250 watts, neutral sounding and tightened up the bass. This had the internal dac which I did not use. You can pick up a Hegel 300 or 360 for around $3000 which are fantastic integrated amps.
Since upgrading to larger speakers, I went to separates but the preamp alone cost more than the Hegel, and the amp was 2x the cost of the preamp plus cost of cables.