Why the facination with integrated amps?

@fsonicsmth I am in the wine business, for 26 years now, and I can tell you that not filtering wine makes a huge difference both in flavor profile but more importantly in terms of ageability. I was fortunate to taste two versions of a wine made by the same producer at about 15 years of age and the filtered wine tasted like a shadow of itself.

And I think the primary reason people, and companies, are moving to integrateds has a lot to do with smartphones and wireless and basically many devices getting smaller and at the same time more functional. No surprise some audiophiles, especially younger ones, would desire more functions in a smaller package.

The other end of that scenario, one that's happening more frequently these days, is the older audiophile retiring and moving to a smaller home. Or perhaps just not wanting to deal with lots of bulky heavy equipment.

There are many practical advantages to integrated amps so its good to see they are being taken more seriously by audio companies.

A separate amp and preamp has the flexibility that an integrated does not have!

I used to favor many "boxes" in my system then had a sea change toward simplicity and less boxes....now I use a tube integrated fed by a streamer DAC...I'm very satisfied.

OP we could not possibly disagree more. Oh well, it is the nature of these threads. Noise, noise, noise and noise again.  If you think short signal paths mean nothing, then I cannot help you. You asked why integrated gear is hot and you now need to be open minded about the reasons and possibilities. Carry on. 

Best sound I have ever had is with my Lyngdorf 2170 one box wonder.  I still build tube amps for fun, but the 2170 with room correction and built in dac simply sounds better.  I mentioned some of the reasons above and they do in fact play a role.  The times they are a changing and broad brushed statements bemoaning digital or Class D etc... are just plan old short sighted.  The innovation pace of all things digital and music is very fast,  very fast indeed. The fun and exciting part is all this is leading to more and more one or two box solutions that use little energy, are light in weight and sound phenomenal.