Integrated amps and stereophile ratings confusion?

I took home and auditioned the Magnum receiver over the summer and was disappointed with it's performance. I've owned the Magnum Etude tuner for a few years and I think it outperformed the receiver. In addition, I ended up purchasing the I-5 and am not disappointed at all with it's performance. I was a little surprised at the ratings in Stereophile as well.

couldn't you just add a nice, inexpensive tuner like a creek, or a rega radio, or a naim?

just a thought - or sell it all and buy a linn classic w/ tuner? excellent sound!

My used MD 208 sounded fairly thin out of the box. The Stereophile review points out that this unit requires a long break in period. Perhaps this should be interpreted as it having taken a long time for the reviewer to get used to the sound. (There's a thread here by Marakanetz that challenges the validity of break in for electronics, versus the listener just adapting to the sound over time.) Personally, I thought the change in sound was real over a relatively long break in period for my unit. Nevertheless, the MD 208 still sounds slightly thin driving Thiel 3.6s. Notably, my old Etude in another room seems quite warm, with a socko midbass. On the other hand, I haven't heard the I-5, but I would think it's possible that the same circuit design could sound different in a different chassis. I agree that ultimately separates are better, and I chose a receiver because of installation constraints for this system.

If you've been into tubes, here's a wonderful (SS) upgrade that will give you a lot of the best tubes have to offer and the advantages of ss: YBA Passion Integre. 100 watts per channel of killer sound. I've had mine 6 weeks, now, and am still finding new wonders to this baby. It's reasonably priced and I compared it to most of the ss out there, and this baby came up the winner. good hunting

I'd be caerful with any integrated purchase. Based on a Stereophile recommendation I bought the Creek 5250 several years ago, but as another here has already pointed out, integrated Class B is not in the same quality category as Class B separates. Most integrateds, such as the Creek, have diminished bass and soundstaging capability compared to separates in t he same Stereophile category or class ranking. Much "smaller" sound results. "Postage stamp sound" as one of my local dealers put it. I feel Stereophile is committing a grave injustice by not pointing out the differences between integrated amps and their separates in the Recommended Components categories.