Are integrated amps technically better than separates?

Would you fill in some of the details of what you know about power cords? You've told us that a power cord that's not up to the job is going to hurt the sound, but what are the basic requirements for an adequate power cord? One that will not degrade the sound in a system the average 'Goner might own.  

As a general rule of thumb I go with heat. If the cord makes any heat at all, in the middle or on either end after several hours of operation, then its not up to the task of working with the component its powering. At that point a heavier power cord can be very nice. The connections on either end can be important- if they heat up it won't matter much about how good the cord itself is as the voltage drops on the connectors (hence the heat) will overpower that.


I have a cheap solid state amp in my bedroom system that makes about 5 watts per channel on a good day. It does not need much of a power cord. But with a 60watt tube amp you can notice differences (and measure differences too) quite easily. So there is a scale issue here due to Ohm's Law; consequently what will work varies from product to product. 

Thanks Ralph.  That's very helpful.

It's very hard for the owner of separates to say an integrated is better, and vise a versa (SP?) I believe, so you have to factor that into how may grains of salt you take responses with. That being said, I have chosen a class D integrated, the best I could afford at the time, and a separate phone section. I am quite happy. But that's just me.

Hopefully you've spent a larger portion of your overall investment in tonearm/cartridge and table and your phono section you mentioned is a good one.

I think you've got the power section down as long as it can push your speakers effortlessly.

I compared the Luxman 509x integrated vs the Luxman c900u and m900u. The separates were so much better. Now maybe I should have compared with the Luxman c700u and m700u to make it an apples-to-apples comparison. 

I compared the Hegel 360 with the top end Hegel separates and the separates were better.

Another thing I like about separates is that they can fit better into a room. The room is a huge part of the sound we get. I like short speaker wire and long XLR interconnects. I also like to keep the space between the speakers clear of a rack, just the amp(s) residing there.