Intergrated or Pre plus Power???

[KrooLism]

Hello all.

I know this is mostly a "Headphone" amp section... but...
I thought I would like to cross over to the dark side for a while and give some speakers a try.

Can anyone give advice as to which combo is best to power high end speakers?? What are the dis-advantages of an intergrated amp?? As I understand it, it's a preamp and power amp in one. Why would one invest in two separate units and spend a fortune on interconnects??

Also, has anyone had any experience with the Meridian DSP range or any other active speakers for that matter?

[Scrith]

It's always seemed odd to me that "high-end" audio people think it is better to keep the input selector and volume control in a separate box, and thereby require additional cables, connections, and so forth which will probably degrade the signal a hell of a lot more than just putting all that stuff in the same box. Probably just to differentiate themselves from the receivers one can buy in places like Best Buy. Silly, if you ask me.

Anyway, supposedly the ICE-powered amps treat volume differently somehow (don't ask me about the details) such that most of the amps have volume controls without the standard volume control circuitry. Check out the Jeff Rowland integrated amps (high end) or the PS Audio GCC series (mid range) for examples.

[recstar24]

Simple is good. I have one big black box that does everything. One set of IC's, one set of speaker cables, black box drives both headphones and speakers. The advantage with separates is the upgrade path, you can swap in and out different components as budget and taste changes. However finding that synergy can be tough. The all in one solution fixes that issue by mating both under the same chassis, you are virtually guaranteed that both will work well together. I don't have enough listening experience to officially justify that claim but from a cost and convenience perspective, the integrated solution is great.

[Duggeh]

A pre and power separate combo allows for you to mix and match different components more easily. That said, I do not think that there is anything sonically lacking with integrated amps so long as they are at least half decent. Most modern integrated amps have fully separated pre/power sections anyway, meaning that you can add a power amp or a pre amp to an integrated set-up.

I use an integrated amp (NAD C352) and I think its superb for the money, certainly pre/power combos have that one caviat, they are more expensive generally speaking.

[DarkAngel]

I had been using preamp + power amp for last 15yrs but have come full circle and now use integrated both solid state and tube hybrid......so much simplier and saves space and cable costs.

Just recently my system was this:
CDP > DAC > Preamp > Amp > Speakers

Now:
CDP > Integrated Amp > Speakers

[artizen65]

DarkAngel,

Well your little integrated has one minor advantage over a lot of integrateds. It has dual discrete power supplies, one for the pre section and one for the amp section.

I feel that this is the biggest disadvantage of a lot of lower end integrateds is the lack of a good quality power supply let alone having a power supply for each section.

KrooL,
Well seperates allow you to taylor the sound of your system. While an integrated allows for space saving and not having to worry as much about system synergy.

Well all that said I would prefer seperates at this point in my audio gear evolution.

http://forum.audiogon.com/cgi-bin/fr...by%20the%20bug

[Spareribs]

I think using a really good amp with a tube amp as a preamp can potentially be good.
I plan getting an old vintage Marantz receiver and I am going to experiment to see if a headphone tube amp with preamp out puts will add body to the sound.

By default, I have an old Kenwood receiver from the 1980's from my parents and I use the Little Dot 2+ as a preamp and it may have degraded the sound. The sound of the CDs sound less clear but there seems to have more body to the sound. I like the smoother tone overall with the tubes, despite the loss of clarity which is not a big loss BTW.

[KrooLism]

Cool.

Thanks guys. What I might do is go demo a few different set ups and make up my mind from there.

I will probably be looking at driving the Martin Logan Summit electrostatic speakers with the amp I'm getting so I'll have to see which amp would synergise with those speakers the best.

Since speakers cost |-------------- THIS MUCH ----------------| more than headphones to get a setup to my satisfaction, I'd probably be looking at intergrated at this time.

THe other option as I said was to get a set of active speakers such as the DSP range by Meridian.

[stryker]

Yeah, listen and then poke around A'gon, Asylum and some other places for opinions on the best setup for your MLs. I can say you do have to pay quite a bit to get a decent integrated to rival separates. I have an Arcam Alpha 10 and am already wishing I could shell out enough for a decent separates. The preamp section on the Alpha 10 is wimpy.

I think that some of the better headamps people use on this forum are great and undervalued preamps. I'm thinking MPX3, Headoom MOH (or new stuff with new modules), Corda HA-2/PreHead, or even Gilmore (on the lean side). All of these are excellent values for 1 or 2 input preamps on the used market.

[Joey_V]

Originally Posted by KrooLism

Cool.

Thanks guys. What I might do is go demo a few different set ups and make up my mind from there.

I will probably be looking at driving the Martin Logan Summit electrostatic speakers with the amp I'm getting so I'll have to see which amp would synergise with those speakers the best.

Since speakers cost |-------------- THIS MUCH ----------------| more than headphones to get a setup to my satisfaction, I'd probably be looking at intergrated at this time.

THe other option as I said was to get a set of active speakers such as the DSP range by Meridian.

Coool! I have the Summits and it's nice to see you looking to get one. Have you stopped by the MartinLoganOwners.com Club? Lots of info there.

I agree... speakers cost quite a bit.... are you looking for just an integrated amp?

joey