Move up the audio ladder...

[Refefer]

Alright, I'm thinking about a move from separates to an integrated for my main rig, with luck upgrading both the preamp and the amplifier in one move.

Currently I'm looking at a Musical Fidelity A300, a Krell 300i, or a Classe CAP-101.

Are there any others in this range I should be looking at and/or any advice for moving from separates to an integrated?

[AndyGwis]

I love my MF A3.2. Great sound, plenty of power, clean looking, all the fixins, full-feature remote, phono, etc. If given the choice, I might even take the A300 over it because it has more power, better speaker posts, and I think the gold knob looks decently cool.

Anything higher up the MF foodchain would probably be even that much better (A5, etc.)

Also looked at some Arcam offerings (A80, A85, alpha 7 / 8 / 10). They had everything I wanted, but build quality wasn't quite as nice, and power ratings weren't quite as high as the MF. Seem to be solid performers, tho.

What else?!? DK Designs is what Russman told me to get, Polkmaniac loves his Music Hall 25.2 (also Mambo, Maven), some good things said about NAD if you want to keep to a lower budget.

Also some good ones from SimAudio, Naim, Creek, Rega, but their power to price was out of my league. I assumed I needed something with high current and wpc to power my Thiel's, and theirs were all 50 - 60wpc.

[Refefer]

Yeah, one thing I don't want to compromise on is power; I need a good 120 quality watts per channel at least to make sure my SDAs have the juice they need for my small music room.

With a ceiling of about $1k on the used market, I have to pick and choose carefully.

[Spacedeckman]

Of those, the MF. The Sim is a good suggestion, as is the Arcam A85 or A32FMJ.

[THX 3417]

With integrated you don’t get the flexibility like what the separates offer, doing it with separates is kinder like doing it the professional cinema way and home cinema is mostly about sound duplication on a different level. I’ve moved away from integrated years ago it was a complete waste of time and offered nothing that made the sound system as exciting now then.

[Refefer]

With integrated you don’t get the flexibility like what the separates offer, doing it with separates is kinder like doing it the professional cinema way and home cinema is mostly about sound duplication on a different level. I’ve moved away from integrated years ago it was a complete waste of time and offered nothing that made the sound system as exciting now then.

While it's true integrated amps don't offer the flexibility of separates, it is to my advantage since my current system is fairly low on the audio chain; if I choose my purchase correctly and get, say, a Krell 300i, I'll be improving my system by a factor of 4 since I won't have to be worried about preamp and amp synergy, nor the cables that connect them, while getting a higher quality amplifier and preamp than what I currently use.

There are several excellent integrated amplifier's out there, you just need to be able to spend the money to get them.

If at some point I find I need a better amplifier, I have preamp-outs to allow me to upgrade in that direction.

[AndyGwis]

Yeah, unless they need hella power, I don't see why more people don't have integrateds.