Which is the better choice to get the best sound for your money? For this discussion our
price point will be about $3000.
The recent introduction of Axiom power amps, part of the Bryston family, has given the distinct musical edge to separates- at less than crazy money.
Integrated Amp
An integrated amp can be a great value. It has a preamp and power amp in one box. Sometimes it has a DAC and Bluetooth built in too. All of this is quite convenient and cost effective. Yet, compromises have to be made to shove two pounds into a one pound bag.
When everything is squeezed on to one chassis, the transformer can only be so big. It’s the same for the filter caps. Perhaps the biggest compromise of all is- all these parts end up being almost on top of each other. This leads to RFI and noise.
Then you’re going to stuff a DAC and Bluetooth in there as well? Yes, you get a lot for your money. But, it can’t be done without trading off musical purity.
The problem we face with an integrated amp is, how do we get it to sound as clean, quiet, relaxed and dynamic as what we can achieve with a dedicated power amp on its own chassis?
The answer is, WE CAN’T, assuming the power amp in question has taken advantage of its potential advantages. An integrated will sound more constricted in the all important midrange, musical air and space categories in particular.
Separate Power Amp
With a dedicated separate power amp, we’ve changed the game. You can now get a much larger transformer with big filter capacitors- than will fit in an integrated amp. The advantage of the bigger transformer and big caps is that you now have superior headroom so your music doesn’t sound dull or boring. Your speakers can breathe and rise to the occasion of musical peaks.
It’s similar to getting a sports car that has thrilling acceleration. A VW bug can go 80 MPH- but not with the pizazz of a Corvette! We want our amp to deliver the verve of live music, instead of being boring.
Preamp
If you have a dedicated preamp you’ll have a dedicated transformer and caps for that function alone. You can have more discrete components than just using chips. You have more space for running a superior phono stage. You can isolate portions of the circuit that you simply can’t if you don’t have enough space. If you choose to put a DAC or Bluetooth on board, you need all the space you can get so the electronics won’t create noise and interference.
Of course, it’s possible to cheat and make a preamp, or power amp, no different from what’s in an integrated amp. But we’re not interested in products that do this.
Real Estate
Separates give you room to space out these component pieces so they’re better isolated from each other vs causing RFI and creating noise by having them close to, TOUCHING, or even right on top of each other. The physical location of parts and running wire within a chassis make a significant difference in your audio purity. Even a small detail like- running metal tabs from the circuit board to the back panel binding posts, will improve your sound vs running teeny, tiny wires.
In a number of hi-fi rags, companies will brag about their nice parts and how they’re connected with skinny wires and hand soldered. But you can also see these wires, the size of dental floss, running all over, around and almost through electronic components- which is a recipe for distortion and imbuing your music with hum and hiss. These guys will tell you point to point is better than running a PCB. It’s not. Both can be good, but not if the point to point work and wire running are less than meticulously carried out. Do you think the Chinese factory pounding this stuff out has immaculate TLC? Please.
Now, separates aren’t always better, because some companies making them don’t make use of this space. If you put puny, low grade parts in a separate power amp, it’s no better than if you had gotten a modest integrated amp.
What we see for the most part these days, are cheap Chinese imports where they’re trying to throw a fast ball right by you. They claim fancy wattage ratings- that they often can’t even achieve. And then they pay no attention to the details above. They cram a box full of cheesy parts and it’s sold on the cheap.
For those of us who love musical nuance, we want better.
Success Is In The Details
Who is actually paying attention to the minutia of what I’ve described above at affordable money?
Axiom ADA1000 Power Amp: $1390 (125×2 @ 8 ohms)
Axiom’s ADA1000 power amp from Canada is a world apart from the Chinese imports. Please take a look at the inside of Axiom’s ADA1000.
The chassis is spacious. The 1000 watt toroidal transformer is huge. The filter capacitance is 60,000uF. ADA1000 weighs 44 pounds and its power supply is LINEAR, not SMPS. It’s made in Canada with a 5 year warranty. Axiom is made by humans on a bench in Canada. Axiom even builds its own boards and populates them in house. Axiom doesn’t buy boards built by a job house 7000 miles away and “assemble” them in Canada.
The next time you read the fine print about a prestigious amplifier brand and it says “assembled” in the US… remember this please.
You have large components and sections of the amp that are separated physically from each other. The wire itself running within the amp isn’t dental floss sized and it’s BRAIDED to further diminish RFI.
ADA1000 has a very relaxed and spacious sound. Instruments breathe and come from a 3D soundstage with excellent dynamic contrast. ADA1000 is rated at 125×2 but will hit 375×2 horse power on peaks. While Axiom makes two larger brothers, ADA1000 is likely to be enough power for you.
Rogue RP-1 Preamp: $1800
Rogue Audio of Pennsylvania builds its entry level preamp to the same level of detail as ADA1000. Note the large toroidal transformer. Toroids harness noise within their core. They don’t whiz RFI all over the chassis. Paying attention to the transformer choice is the first step in getting a quiet preamp. You see quality parts spaced evenly throughout the chassis. These parts aren’t crammed in a tight space negatively impacting their neighbors. They’re built on a high quality PCB, not laden with miles of spaghetti where you’ll have to wonder if the mass production house was on its A game that day. A sloppy solder joint here or there or running wires too close to susceptible semi conductors is the difference between a black or gray musical background- as well as imminent failure.
Please also note a luscious set of 12AU7 tubes housed on their own board on the rear of the chassis. Rogue tests and matches all tubes so you’re guaranteed to get Quiet Twins. They don’t just pull two out of random boxes and slap them in.
RP-1 beats the other guys with an open vocal region, be they voices of singers or instruments, that isn’t congested. When you hear RP-1 playing singers in particular… the Asian imports sound quashed and blah. RP-1 allows air, space and three dimensionality to be presented in spades. It’s an ideal match for ADA1000, which has the same characteristics.
Rogue doesn’t build a DAC or Bluetooth into RP-1. They feel the added noise is unacceptable. I have no problem with that. A Bluetooth adapter on Amazon is inexpensive. DACs come in all ranges. If you have a great source you don’t even need one.
Crown XLS2502 Power Amp
I’ll use the Crown as an example of what’s coming from China. I’m not saying it’s awful, but you can do better with Axiom! It’s cheap and has lots of power. But take a look inside. Switching power supply, small EI core transformer, tiny filter caps, components hugging each other… it’s so jam packed that they even toss in a few squirts of “bird poop” to absorb all the friggen ringing going on. The engineers are well aware of this mess! Please visit the yellow tab labeled Axiom at the bottom of our home page if you want more details.
$3190 All In
For just under $3200 you get a preamp and amp combo that no similarly priced integrated amp can beat.
Almost all integrateds at this price point are what I alluded to above. They’re boxes from China with a bunch of compromised parts and construction- squished in, that sound OK. But your money is supporting workers on the other side of the world and your music is more hum drum than it could be for the same investment.
When you evaluate what is inside this gear and the pains that were taken to lay it out- it all makes sense. Further, we have the TLC of two great N American companies. Your money is invested with people and companies who care about music. They’re not just slapping out electronic widgets in a factory that will likely make radar detectors and alarm panels when they’re done with this run of stereo gear.
Please Visit
We would love to demo this combo for you. Hearing beats reading about all this. I’ve taken the time to spell out some details to let you know that these products are special and worth your time to audition. We have some of the best speakers in the industry to help show them off.