Why the facination with integrated amps?

More to go wrong..HDMI.decoder failure common, no spares...bin!Separate components are better!

Agreed inna, for me it’s pretty simple - why would I pay the same amount of cash for seperates that have lesser sound quality versus the Gryphon Diablo?  Only reason may be to sacrifice some sound quality now for the sake of future flexibility facilitated by seperates.

That said, I’ve been trying and failing at finding separates that give me the type of sound I’m looking for - detailed and transparent with great sounstaging and dynamics, with well defined bass and good overall drive and timing.  And enough bloom on certain tones so that it doesn’t sound too dry and lean and non-musical, and yet having the right tones “pop” with immediacy and air and space, like with vocals.  And tonal evenness so that sibilants or sharp upper mids are reigned in and do not totally ruin lesser recordings.  Is that too much to ask?  So far at my price point I’ve found products that excel at some of these elements but not all of them, and because of that these products take me out of the “flow” of the music.  If the Diablo can check all the boxes above it will be worth every penny and will offer an experience I can’t get with separates.

Of note, last night on a whim I in-home demoed a Simaudio 600i integrated with my B&W 803 D2’s, and was totally dazzled by the detail and soundstage the amp offered.  But it was also dry and cold, shy on bass (but what bass was there was uber-well defined) and presence across the band, and rather cold and boring.  Not what I would call engaging....  Maybe just because my 803’s need more power, but something tells my the Simaudio is all about surgically presenting just the raw  facts and nothing more, which I don’t think is quite enough for me to stay connected with the music.

After decades of separates, some of the highest quality, I have recently moved to an integrated as well. While the original reasons were to some degree economic and space related, I was still not willing to compromise on sound quality. I ended up purchasing the Octave V80se from my dealer after auditioning a handful of other contenders. The sound of this unit combined with the total flexibility it offers and the ability for it to easily drive my speakers well beyond my needs made the choice a simple one.

The cost of the unit, while not insignificant seemed like a absolute value to me. I still have an outboard phono preamp and dac, so I am not a true "single boxer" but the performance and efficiency of the Octave makes more sense than most could imagine. Unfortunately I was not able to audition the Gryphon, as I am sure it is amazing....well actually, perhaps that is just as well....

I'm not sure if this has been touched on, but there's no reason you can't combine separates with your integrated.  I started out with a Peachtree Nova 300 in my computer room which includes a great DAC, phono stage, and headphone amp.  You can also connect a preamp to it.

Even though the built in components were really good in the Peachtree, I am using a better external phono stage, DAC, and headphone amp and certainly didn't need 300 WPC in my small 10 X 12 room.  I came to realize that even though this was a modest unit, it was overkill for my needs and space.

I "downsized" to a Heed Elixir which takes up less space and doesn't have a DAC (it does have a very high quality headphone amp and phono stage, which I still don't use) and use an external DAC, phono stage, and headphone amp.

I realize most people are referring to a separate amp(s) and preamp or line stage when talking about "separates" in this, but you don't have to be limited by what's "in the box" with an integrated.

Some very high end big bucks integrateds are being mentioned in this conversation, but for someone getting into the hobby or with less lofty goals a very nice sounding system can be built around a good integrated for a relatively modest investment.