My thoughts are that integrated amps and one box cd players tend to represent far better "value" for the money. The cost savings of one chassis (vs. two or more) for the manufacturer are siginificant and passed on to the consumer for the most part (while we don't want to admit it, a fair amount of the retail price on any high end audio component goes to the fit and finish of the chassis, with some exceptions...lamm comes to mind). Second, the elimination of external connectors with hard wired connections also tends to produce sonic benefits. That said, at the (very) top end, separate chassis do have the edge because of the ability to separate the power supplies from the rest of the components, as well eliminating intra-chassis resonances and the like. While few will disagree that separates provide the best sound, integrateds will provide more value. Of course this is my opinion and like all generalizations will not hold to be true all the time.
