Are integrated amps technically better than separates?

In a perfect world, where everything is equal, and for any given amount of money spent by the designer manufacturer, yes. Why? less money on chassis, better control of interfacing, fewer wires.

Now on the real world :-)

Nothing’s every equal. And separates have a cachet that means most designers' time will be spent on  separates, if the products are designed for  high end hobbyists.

That said i have a prototype integrated amp running right now, in my living room, and its every bit as good as the separates that it replaces, which cost at least 3x as much. Maybe more.
But that’s one of those cases where most of the major things ARE equal - because i made them so.

In terms of sound/dollar, if someone wants to make a better integrated, compared to equally priced separates, its pretty easy to do so, and very hard to do the opposite.  Consider that the chassis is the single most expensive part of every component, and the packaging + shipping is sometimes #2.

So this isn’t rocket science.

That said i have found few integrated amps that really perform at the very high end; which is why this prototype exists. And oh, is it ugly!

G

BTW someone justified the difference based on independent power supplies. And why can i not have multiple power supplies in one box? I once designed and manufactured a power amp with 5.  Why 5??? (insert old Audi ad joke "ya, because six vas too big" ) -- because it  was the best way to get great sound, keep separation, and optimize each supply to the circuit it was supporting.
yea, power supplies matter BIG TIME. And i’d rather spend more money on them and less on bent metal and extra jacks.

So I would be interested to see what the answers would be if the OP had specified "at the same price point."

Which is why I answered the way I did. These sorts of questions are without qualifiers pure flights of fantasy. The OP at least did qualify it a bit by asking about connections. Still that is not much of a limitation. As anyone can see already we have not only separated into pre-amp and amp but even more separate boxes for power supplies for the separate pre-amp and amp.  

I get why no one wants to talk about total cost. Throw in total cost, require people to actually listen to the whole package, it suddenly becomes very hard to find separates that even come close. But hey flights of fantasy are fun. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QH7hj1nauTc

Saddle up your unicorns!!

Well, arguments can be made, particularly depending on budgets.  

But if you take that step, doesn't it make more sense in some ways to have an outstanding pre-amp, with a nice big power supply - and simply use powered speakers?

Always trade-offs, but I've often kicked around really seeing what the best integrateds I can afford could do.

I had all separates and took the plunge and went with a high end integrated amp with built in DAC and very impressive specs. My Peachtree Nova 300 put separates to shame. Smooth, dynamic and uber powerful