Jeepers, casting aspersions on an entire category of equipment without citing the reasons why, such as price and/or anything else, kind of begs off any informative dialogue that might develop.
After a good many years spent with separates, and a good many amp/preamp combinations used, I went back to a quality integrated simply to remove all the fuss/cables.
I don’t know what price point the op is considering so I’m just going to say that if one is accustomed to spending one’s dollars on separates, one should be prepared to spend a similar amount on an integrated. My experience with a B. A. T. Preamp for my Pass Labs X150.5 amp resulted in my purchasing a B. A. T. Integrated with an identical power rating to the Pass Labs.
The VK300XSE has a good phono stage, puts out 150 watts @ 8ohms, 300 @ 4ohms, is tubed, and takes up less space. I bought it refurbished for approximately half it’s original msrp and am quite satisfied with its unsuckiness!
After a good many years spent with separates, and a good many amp/preamp combinations used, I went back to a quality integrated simply to remove all the fuss/cables.
I don’t know what price point the op is considering so I’m just going to say that if one is accustomed to spending one’s dollars on separates, one should be prepared to spend a similar amount on an integrated. My experience with a B. A. T. Preamp for my Pass Labs X150.5 amp resulted in my purchasing a B. A. T. Integrated with an identical power rating to the Pass Labs.
The VK300XSE has a good phono stage, puts out 150 watts @ 8ohms, 300 @ 4ohms, is tubed, and takes up less space. I bought it refurbished for approximately half it’s original msrp and am quite satisfied with its unsuckiness!