Separates vs. Integrated

It's the power handling stupid (in my best Bill Clinton voice!). I agree with Marakanetz above, I've never seen a 300W/ch integrated amp. Most integrated don't seems to be aimed at those who need lotsa power.

For me, I initially switched from a receiver (aka intergrated with tuner) to separates just so I could get more power (150w into 8, 250 into 4), which my speakers sorely needed.

Nowadays I like having my tube monoblocks, which let me run short speaker wires, and long interconnects. I can now place my audio rack in a bass minima - away from my speakers. Sort of nice.

Hi Aroc and all:

Said above by Aroc: "I agree with Marakanetz above, I've never seen a 300W/ch integrated amp. Most integrated don't seems to be aimed at those who need lotsa power."

If 300w Int. amps are not made. What is the primary reason?
Marketing or engineering?

I remain,

Maybe both Clueless. Again, in the past, integrated amps were "entry level", the targeted market not needing that much power. From engineering, the integrated being one box, I would think it to be harder to engineer the big power in a small space.

As the integrated is growing more popular, higher output integrateds are being made, such as the Mac 6900 (200w).

There may be exeptions, but I would suspect if a manufacturer produces an integrated, it will not be sonically supior to their best separates.

(Signed, a happy integrated user,)

Forgive my spelling above! A spell checker on Audiogon would be nice.

I think 300W integrateds are not made simply due to the fact they are tailored for smaller spaces where 300W is overkill. I read once that it is a thermal issue too but I don't really think so.

I personally auditioned a McIntosh MA6450 integrated and was able to compare it to my McIntosh MC712/7100 from which the circuits came and feel that they were too close to tell apart in a blindfold test. There were several of us there and we all agreed that the differences were not audible by human ears - only noticible with test equipment (the noise specs are better in the separates).

Therefore the main advantage of separates IMO is that they are more flexible to upgrading. However, you can run into impedance mismatches if you mix brands up so you are limited there. I love my ss system and will keep it but I would like a tube integrated so there are no mismatch problems and still have tube sound - the best solution for this case. A nice thing too is if the integrated has a preout, then you get the added benefit of flexible upgrades in the future. Arthur