My first amp was a Marantz 1060 that I bought in 1972. After that I had separates from HK, McIntosh, Apt, Luxman, Adcom and several more until last year. Moving into a new house the clutter of separates had a SAF of 0.00. And while the audiophile in me really wanted a Luxman or Mark Levinson 5805, cost overruns on the house meant compromising my turntable budget or my amp. After much research, hand wringing, and reality checking, I pulled the trigger on a Marantz PM7000N. I have no regrets. What I saved easily covered my VPI Prime Scout and Hana SH. There's very little the PM7000 cannot do, and for my listening a solid 60-80 eatts is adequate. Do I still dream about that Mark Levinson? Sure. But the bottom line is the simplicity and value of integrated amps across the board is unbeatable.
After years of separates, I'm going integrated. Anyone else do the same?
I'm rethinking my listening room. I want my audio rack to be more minimalist vs lots of boxes, wires, and clutter. I know separates, in general, will sound better. However, at the level of my system, I'm not certain the difference would be as apparent. In the grand scheme of things of Audiophilia, my level of components are mid-fi at best (BHK Pre, First Watt J2, Elac PPA-2 phono, Pro-ject s2 Dac, ZU Omen Defs)
I'm favoring one of the Luxman Class A's (I know Luxman is getting out of the Class A business. The only way I would favor a built-in Dac is if it were upgradable like McIntosh or Accuphase. I'm guessing a Luxman or Mac built-in phono would sound just as good as to what I have now (Elac PPA-2).
So the question is, who else has gone to integrated? Do you regret the move or are you glad you did?