What sounds best integrated or separates?

Soniqmike,

A lot of truth in what you say.

I am an amateur photographer and my 12 year old son can take pictures on his new $300 Panasonic Digital camera (an amazingly functional gadget I must say) in auto mode that are as good as or better than many I've taken in the past on a very good Nikon FE film camera with high quality specialized lenses, filters, etc. I now borrow his Panasonic whenever I can.

I've kind of coveted Blue Circle amps to some extent. Didn't realize they were hybrid.

Read one review that indicated a Blue Circle amp took the reviewer's large Ohms to a whole new level, and he was using some pretty good amplification prior.

Pricey stuff but I need to check into it some more for sure.

I've also considered a Musical Fidelity like the Tri Vista or equivalent in that I have been very happy with my MF amp.

I am very strongly considering going integrated on my next amplification upgrade.

Didn't realize Pass made integrateds. Will look into that also.

Rowland or Bel Canto Class D gear is an attractive option as well. Does BEl Canto make integrateds? Are they in the same league as the other big boy integrateds?

At the outset, I own separates and prefer that setup. However, my opinion is that given the same power capabilities and distortion specs, a good integrated will sound as good as separates - for example I doubt that anyone could tell the difference between the Mcintosh 7000 integrated and their model 120 preamp driving an MC252. The separate power supply and noise differences that may have once provided for different performance have been eclipsed by better designs. While that presents my opinion as to the OP's question, I would add that there are other reasons for going with separates. A couple. First, you have more control over your system when it comes to upgrades/changes. Second, integrateds limit your power capability - while there may be some out there, I cannot think of any 500 watt integrateds.

"I cannot think of any 500 watt integrateds."

Class D Icepower modules go to 5002/ch into 8 ohm and 1000w/ch into 4.

Rowland makes a 500w/ch integrated using this for under $10000 I believe.

Any other manufacturers provide a 500w/ch class D integrated? If not, I'd bet there will be more coming quite soon.