user poll on seperates vs integrated

I’ve had separates for over fifty years and bought my first integrated in the end of ‘21.  I’ve been very happy with the Hegel H390, but I’m not using the streaming part and I’m not using the DAC.  I haven’t started looking yet, but it’s only a matter of time before I start looking for a couple of amps.

In general, the decision to separate amp and preamp sections is to keep high power components away from sensitive lower power components. For the same reason some people prefer separate power supplies as well. It makes it much easier for designers to shield from EM fields and associated distortion.

There have been many advances in stereo components.

You cannot measure with "price points" however for a couple reasons.

1. Many components that are selling for 7-10K are over priced. Ive opened some of these up and marvel at the audacity of some of the pricing placed on mediocrity. A standard steel casement costs about $40 and I’ve seen these on $11,000 integrateds

2. Tastes cannot be assimilated into subjective reasoning. I’ve heard higher priced separates I have not liked as much as a set of $4000 separates.

But that’s me and my tastes.

There are many integrateds that produce wonderful assimilation of recorded music. The question remains if these inte’s fulfill your tastes sufficiently enough to be gratifying to you.

For instance, I can’t listen to Hegel stuff as I find them fatiguing thru resolute speakers. They’re impressive at first and wow many in audio salons.

You and many others here might love Hegel. Not me.

Go with a name brand that consensus wise, seems to float many boats such as ARC, (Paragon is selling the renowned Vsi 75 for $6K where these things were once $10K), Belles Signature, Music Fidelity 6 series, etc.Ffor separates, I've always liked the Quick Silver stuff and they're not crazy money.

I like "natural sounding". Not embellished with too much distortion to round off highs for the sake of bass or weight. Nor do I like highs that border on the sterile. I go for correct timbres, appropriate sound stage for the recording I'm listening to and spectacular imaging. One Vsi 75 thru Pro Ac Studio 100's does this enough for me.

Try to find descriptions of the listeners taste in sound reproduction or else reviews are absolutely worthless otherwise.

All integrateds are a compromise, they have to be, and this could be a good or bad thing. No integrated that I know of has the exact same phono preamp guts of their best separates. Same for dac, preamp, and amp.

But the good thing about integrateds, they are cheaper and the sq/features might meet or exceed your needs for the money.

oldrooney: thanks for the thoughtful reply, there is so much to consider.  among other things, the room i'm in now is not likely the room i'll be in forever, as it's a rental. 

i was initially in the market for something more in the range of the focal 2, since that's where my budget was at, but a dealer had the 3s on hand that he'd taken as a trade-in and sold them to me for less than the price of the 2s, i couldn't pass that deal up, even if i knew it was something i'd need to grow into, both in terms of system and space for it to occupy, over the course of some years, i considered it more of a long term investment.

whenever possible, i prefer to save a little more and stretch to something that is maybe a little farther up than i was initially, looking, and then just keep and enjoy it for a long time, vs get something more entry level and keep feeling like i want to upgrade it every year or two. 

a long way of saying that at the moment, the speakers are probably overkill for the room, but i move around often enough, they might be perfect in the next one.  i don't listen at extreme volumes, not trying to terrorize the neighbors, nor is the music i'm playing terribly bass-forward, mostly rock, pop, folk and some r&b/soul.  the rogue tube amp i have now offers plenty of power for them, at 91db sensitivity, i rarely ever get past 50% on the volume dial and that's in triode mode which i believe halves the output. 

i enjoy tubes and would be happy to stay that course, although i don't like the aesthetics of most tube gear (to me it looks like it was cobbled together from parts of an old soviet submarine)  i wish more tube amp manufactueres would embrace contemporary design aesthetics.  some exceptions i've seen recently are esoteric, and copland, but the ones that i like the look of tend to be out of my price range (i think i just really prefer a closed-chassis design, i don't need all the bits to be exposed, they just get dusty).

i do think, whether i continue down the separates path, or go integrated, i'll continue to use tubes.