Integrated Amps vs. Separates.

I suppose that in general, most separates are better than most integrateds. BUT, there are pros & cons to both, and my opinion lately is that there are some great integrateds out there that are as good as great separates. With integrateds you don't have to worry about the cost of interconnects, which are very expensive and do affect the sound. (And possibly power cords too, but I havn't gone that far over the deep end yet.) Also, there's no reason nowadays why an integrated cannot be designed with considerations for separation of the pre/power componants. (Although completely seperate power supplies etc is a good thing of course). And the manufacturer (hopefully) gets the perfect match between the two, which can be trouble when you're going for separates. I recently went through an upgrade,looking for amplification ~$3K, and finally decided on finding a nice integrated (tubes). My short list had units like the VAC Avatar, Bel Canto SETi40, ( both are Stereophile class "A" if that means anything)... I wound up buying a Cary sli80, and am VERY happy with it.

Audio Refinement Complete, built under license (i.e. designed by YBA) is the best value integrated on the market today. You can pick one up for under $700, hard to justify a Krell or even Classe integrated. Having said that, no integrated can match separates. Integrateds have a place in office and bedroom systems, seperates belong in your main rig. JL

I wish I had more time for this reply, maybe later. In the high-end arena, integrated's have always been sneered at. We are entering a new age where integrated's are making a huge come back. It kind of reminds me of the CD player, where the market went crazy with separates and now they are making awesome one box units. There are many advantages to a one one box, not just the advantage of one less cable. To build a chasis for a amp or preamp is expensive, so is packaging. There are a lot of companies that are coming out with integrated amps now that were dedicated to separates. I just purchased Mark Levinson's first integrated amp, the 383, and I love it. They claim that sonically it competes with their 380 pre and 334 amp, this is a $13,500 setup, the 383 is $6000. I encourage you to go to http://www.madrigal.com/383_SP_Rev/SP383rev.htm. This is a copy of the review of the 383. I am not suggesting you read this for the sake of the 383, but they cover some good point to integrated amps and mention others. Gotta run!

At @$1500-2000 retail and less the best integrateds are very competitive and sometimes surpass seperates, but over this amount the cost of extra box is not overwhelming and the physical/engineering advantages of seperation will win out as superior for the best seperates. But under $1500 I would definitely look at integrateds, Sam

I've recently, for the first time in 40+ audiophile years, gone to monoblock power amps, enabling short speaker cables with long interconnects. That now strikes me as the one big irrefutable superior aspect of separates. Hard to do at a lowish price point, maybe, but worth working up to if you can. A big advantage of separates is given up without going all the way, to monoblocks. (The long interconnects raise no problems, even though I use a passive preamp.)