From integrated to components

The one you have is just fine. BTW, You were told wrong.

One quick story. I bought B&W CM7's with brand new top of the line Rotel separates about 3 Years ago. It was the best amp, preamplifier and cdp Rotel was selling at that time. The set up sounded horrible. I figured it was break in and the speakers were the problem. I went to the basement and dragged up my old B&W DM602's that we're awesome speakers. Still sounded like crap. I let that system break in for hundreds of hours with no change. I sold the separates and bought a Rogue Cronus Magnum integrated tube amplifier here on Audiogon and all the stars aligned when I hooked it up. The moral of my story is don't replace your Rotel with new Rotel. Its not the same. Its so fatiguing that my music loving wife helped me sell it and danced when we first played the Rogue.

Tell us what you're looking for. What don't you like about what you hear?

One more thing. Although the cdp was slot loading I liked it very much. That was one thing they got right.

First you'd want to get speakers that you like the sound from, than you match the rest of components(amp first). With your current integrated better speakers will sound better giving you extra time to match the rest of components integrated or separate.

The trend seems to be the other way around. Many people are going from separates to integrateds to simplify their system and eliminate the need for another interconnect. The best cable is no cable at all and that is what you get between the amp and preamp when you use an integrated amp.