I debated and debated this question and looked at Sunfire seperates, Anthem, Rotel and came to the conclusion from talking to a lot of people that the Ultimate Receiver offered 99.99% of the performance of the seperates. In the case of the Sunfire seperates, the cost difference is about $2500 with the same amp and the exact same processor. One dealer told me the only difference would be because of sharing a single power supply instead of having seperate dedicated and it would not be a big deal. Of course, the real proof is in a sidexside comparison which I have not done, but I am so extremely happy with the performance of the Ultimate Receiver. There are a couple of things that could be done a bit better but it is still an awesome piece of equipment at a reasonable price.