Separates or Integrated? What makes more sense?

When I was young, separated were the way to go. Two things have changed. First, engineers have learned to build power and pre in the same box. Second the transformers and chassis have become much more expensive relative to the electronics. Listen to an Ayre AX5 and try to find separates that match the sound quality!

Separates allow you a lot more flexibility and greater resolution. They allow you to improve your setup incrementally, which is great on the budget!


In the resolution department as an example, you can keep your speaker cables short by placing the amplifiers right by the speakers. It was this very issue that caused me to look into balanced operation back in the 1980s; at the time it was impractical to place my equipment stand between the speakers so I was running fairly long speaker cables. When I got the balanced line preamp running and then ran short speaker cables, the increase in resolution was dramatic! Since then I have seen and demonstrated this many times.


Integrated amps can be very nice but in a nutshell represent a compromise.

preamp should be matched with the source (to get the desired tone) and power amp with the speakers so for me i would say separates. i believe most people would reccomend tubes in the preamp and then solid state for the power amp. i would look for transparent, good dynamics i.e the power output should double down as the impedance drops from 8 to 4 to 2ohm and would also look to avoid negative feedback.

A two month old (its birthday is written on the bottom plate) Dennis Had Inspire "Firebottle HO" single ended hand wired tube masterpiece, about 1200 bucks. New (original series) Schiit Freya, 700 bucks. Inexpensive Morrow cables...it’s like this stuff was almost free...cost of piles of tubes for ongoing sonic experimenting? Uh...never mind...

Hello, my issue is if tech changes you are back to square one. Second, you are sharing one power supply with both in an integrated amp. More power is better. Third, you may get things you do not need but still pay for: phono preamp, DAC, and tuner. one Note, separates require an interconnect between the amp and the preamp which might add to the cost. Another option is Hegel H90. Some one will sell you one for $10,000. It has an incredible DAC and 380 W per channel.