I saw the back of an integrated and it depressed me.

I hear you.  I remember when I sold my old yamaha reciever that weighted 80 lbs because it was old school copper because it wouldn't accept HDMI inputs.  I then noticed the Yamaha that replaced it weighted 20 lbs and I felt I had made a mistake.  

My Denon AV reciever has HDMI inputs and RCA outputs for each channel.  I run RCA out for my front speakers to one input of my amp.  

The rest of my inputs are digital so I run digital inputs to my DAC which effectively becomes my preamp and routes to a 2nd RCA input on my amp.

So I guess 2 RCA inputs and the rest digital would work for me today.

Jerry

To each his own as for me it is digital all the way. albums are too costly, to fragile, to much a hassle to maintain for the perceived sound benefit. Oh, I own the Technics SUG 700  and it is a nice piece of gear for sure. 

You know what else I miss from those old integrated units?  Those fine speaker connectors.  You know the ones.  You just pushed down on the plastic clip and fed the lamp cord into the hole. 😭   Time waits for no man....... 

@bigtwin Don't worry my dude, those are never going away.

....I won’t beg to differ, @bigtwin ​​​@erik_squires .... 😒

Those lil’ clippy things are only a plastic step-Down from a Fahnestock clip....

Oh, sure...the plastic won’t short out, but I’ve had a couple break or seem so loose that any ’crackle’ or loss of channel would be my first culprit....

That, and the wire ’fray’ with 12g. cables?

Drove me to ’tin’ all the end ’stabs’.... (hidden benefit = I can ’haircut’ 10g, tin, and dB to other realms....)

....and those plastic b*st*rds are too close together....2 side by side, *meh*.

4 s/s, I’ve got ’fat fingers’ (...that some would say match my fat head...and they’ll get theirs....*nasty Snicker*....)

*Bleeah!* (Nasty Snicker, thrown in round file....)

I’ve seen 6, even 8 in a row....That’s Insane.

5 way posts or Dearth I mean Depth dammitDEATH......

Damn the warranty....

I'll take the phoenix plugs on my amp as a close 2nd pref....   anytime, anywhere, anyhow, anywho....