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Do Integrateds sound better than Receivers?

I have a Rotel reciever as amplification for my system, but would like to upgrade to an integrated amp. One reason for this is that I don't listen to my radio. But the other reason is that I've been lead to believe that an integrated amp will sound better than a receiver. Is this necessarily so? How might having a tuner in the same chassis affect the sound quality of the amp? For example, would a Rotel integrated amp sound better than a Rotel receiver?
rosedanny

Showing 3 responses by saki70

saki70
907 posts
 
BTW , if you don't already , you may want to pull your speakers out into the room a few feet . I see in your pictures that they are against the wall and beside some furniture . Could make a difference !

Good luck .
saki70
907 posts
 
Rosedanny ;
As an insentive , when I moved from a receiver to Rotel seperates , it sounded as if I had taken a blanket off of my speakers ! All of the other equipment and cables remained the same .

I then moved on to integrateds that , used , cost much less and I have received better sound . I am now using an integrated that is head and shoulders above the Rotel stuff at 1/3 the cost new .

I believe that in your price range you can't beat a good integrated . You have many well respected pieces to choose from .

Good luck .
saki70
907 posts
 
At present I am using a Primaluna Prologue 2 integrated .
I started my search by listening to as many different systems as I could in my area and when I traveled . I found that I liked tubes much better than SS . They provided a body and presence to the music that I had been looking for and could not find with any of the SS based systems that I had auditioned .

I started with a Cayin A88T , it provided the warmth , body and presence that I enjoyed and was reasonably priced in the used market . But due its extreme , for me , difficult biasing procedure I moved on to the Primaluna .

The Primaluna is self/auto biasing and of the 'modern' tube sound . It gave me much more extension in the top end , a clearer sound and more detail at the exspense of the more traditional warmth of the Cayin . This was somewhat of a revelation to me as I didn't know what I was missing until I had it ! I have now changed the input tubes which have given me some of that traditional tube warmth of the Cayin without loosing the features that I had gained . The PL will take quite an array of output tubes to allow for even more experimanation .

The Primaluna , as good as it sounds , may not be the ultimate amp for me but it is definately a good tool . It will allow me to experiment , easily , to find what that ultimate tube sound might be . At @ $ 1300 , to me , it is a bargain and a great tool !

Good luck .
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