One of the biggest industry shifts over the past 20 years has been to more sophisticated (and expensive) integrateds. People clearly like having a single box that provides great sound with less cable and power cord expense. My first exposure to the segment was the vaunted JRDG Concentra II amp back in 2001. I think almost every hifi electronics company now makes an even higher end integrated amplifier ~$10k that is designed to emulate separates at a lower cost. Some of these include(d):
Ayre AX-5 Twenty
Vac Sigma 170i
McIntosh MA-8000
Pass Labs INT-60
Gryphon Diablo
Luxman 590ax
Then came the rise of the "super" integrated - companies like DarTZeel CTH-8550, Vitus SIA-25, and Constellation Argo produced a ~$25k integrated that took things to the next level. Dart, to Herve's credit, includes a phono stage that makes the value argument nice if you like analog. Others might include a dac. I owned the DarTZeel for several years and loved its sound and flexibility.
Now, $25k is old school and we are moving to the $50k uber integrated:
CH Precision I1- starts at $38k but easily up to $50k
Soulution 530- $49k
Audionet Humboldt- $55k
D'agostino Momentum- $49k
Vitus SIA-30- $46k plus options
Pilium Leonidas- $40k
At what point do we give up on the integrated and require separates? Are these uber integrateds still compromised by not having separate power supplies and output stages. I'm hard pressed to find a difference in the recent doubling of price for performance reasons. I would also expect resale to be low for them as a result. Thoughts?
Ayre AX-5 Twenty
Vac Sigma 170i
McIntosh MA-8000
Pass Labs INT-60
Gryphon Diablo
Luxman 590ax
Then came the rise of the "super" integrated - companies like DarTZeel CTH-8550, Vitus SIA-25, and Constellation Argo produced a ~$25k integrated that took things to the next level. Dart, to Herve's credit, includes a phono stage that makes the value argument nice if you like analog. Others might include a dac. I owned the DarTZeel for several years and loved its sound and flexibility.
Now, $25k is old school and we are moving to the $50k uber integrated:
CH Precision I1- starts at $38k but easily up to $50k
Soulution 530- $49k
Audionet Humboldt- $55k
D'agostino Momentum- $49k
Vitus SIA-30- $46k plus options
Pilium Leonidas- $40k
At what point do we give up on the integrated and require separates? Are these uber integrateds still compromised by not having separate power supplies and output stages. I'm hard pressed to find a difference in the recent doubling of price for performance reasons. I would also expect resale to be low for them as a result. Thoughts?