Yes, I have; and back to separates.
The Air Tight ATM-1 is a stereo amp that has 2 inputs and a switch between them, but no active preamp stage...It was fairly low-powered at 35w, but beat head-to-head a combo of Krell monoblocks/Krell preamp when driving a fairly efficient speaker(Genesis APM-1). At the time, I was carrying my ATM-1 around to dealers trying to mate speakers with it. You should have seen the faces on the salestaff after the little tube amp crushed the Krell. They were almost speechless.
Short signal paths can be a benefit, but it's tough to generalize that one approach is best. Think it will vary piece-by-piece. If you're into vinyl, I'd argue that most separate phono stages will trounce the ones in most preamps...
The Air Tight ATM-1 is a stereo amp that has 2 inputs and a switch between them, but no active preamp stage...It was fairly low-powered at 35w, but beat head-to-head a combo of Krell monoblocks/Krell preamp when driving a fairly efficient speaker(Genesis APM-1). At the time, I was carrying my ATM-1 around to dealers trying to mate speakers with it. You should have seen the faces on the salestaff after the little tube amp crushed the Krell. They were almost speechless.
Short signal paths can be a benefit, but it's tough to generalize that one approach is best. Think it will vary piece-by-piece. If you're into vinyl, I'd argue that most separate phono stages will trounce the ones in most preamps...