Some I think a good integrated amp will in most cases out perform a pre/power of the same price class and in some cases outperform pre/power above their price range. Now if only they would add a really good phono amp as an option it would be perfect.
But that is one of my problems with audio gear. That you actually have to buy a whole new amp if you want some extra power,better PSU atc. I would like it if amps, CD players etc were more upgradeble.
Say an amp is standard 100W SS for $1000, then for $500 you can buy a external power supply for the power amp part. Then for another $500 you can buy a an other 100W board. So you can bridge the first one and second one for 200W per channel or you can have 4*100W for bi amping. For $500 add a DAC etc etc.
I just made up the prices but I think audio should be more modulair. I know a company that makes a DAC that comes standard with a RCA and a optical S/Pdif. But the DAC has 2 more slot. So you can also have a USB or AES/ebu or I2S etc input and if they don't have a standard card for like my CEC superlink they can make one. More companies should offer this kind of flexibility.
