Moving to separates

Buy a good intergrated amp, more bang for the bucks.

An interesting topic.  I do have seperates, mono block s/s amplifers and tube pre amplifer.  I am now testing an integrated platform and have been impressed!  Not all assumptions are true in audio.  This is enough of a postive change to move me to the integrated.

Thanks for clarifying — that helps a lot. Since you listen to multichannel music I’m gonna reiterate my recommendation for the McCormack amp I linked above, and for only $800 I’m confident you’ll hear a substantial improvement over the amps in your AVR.

If motivated, one can opt for a distribution amp with 6x 2chan. after your pre.

Since some can either run off it's buss line and have a different source for one or more.

Buss line to a separate amp or receiver line in.

Put anything you want in between either.

I like mine. ;) 😎

I went from a top of the line Denon AVR putting out 125 WPC at 8 ohms to Rotel separates.  My Rotel RB1582 MKII amp puts out 200 WPC into 8 ohms and 350 into 4 ohms.  The bigger Rotel amp was too big for my shelf setup.  I noticed better bass control and more headroom with my Arendal 1723 towers that run at 4 ohms.  Plus the separates look cool which matters to me.  I now have all separate components in my main music only system.  Makes it easier to tweak and upgrade components over time.  A great part of the hobby in my experience.