Which is the better choice to get the best sound for your money?

The answer used to be separates for sure. Not any more.

Integrated Amps

An integrated amp has a preamp and power amp in one box. Sometimes it has a DAC and or phono preamp built in too. All of this is quite convenient and cost effective. But in general you have to cut a lot of corners to shove two pounds into a one pound bag.

Almost all affordable integrateds are made in China. They have switching power supplies and class D output stages. This allows companies to fit a LOT of wattage and features into the box at a cheap price. It doesn’t provide the best sound. It does make for a very salable product.

Separates

If you buy a higher end preamp and power amp, each has plenty of room in its own box for a good sized transformer, filter caps and other components. Historically, separates have performed better than integrateds because there is more room, and money, to use more and better electronics within. If price isn’t an object we still lean to gutsy separates.

Atoll of France

Atoll of France has changed the game! It doesn’t build like the Chinese model described above. Atoll products are built in France with a 3 year warranty.

Atoll builds integrateds and separates with good sized transformers, filter caps and through hole parts, instead of surface mount parts. Atoll uses this same level of quality in its integrated amps as well as separates.

With Atoll, an integrated amp is NOT a second class citizen. Invariably, Atoll integrateds are the smarter way to fly in building an audio system. All Atolls are class AB and run with large transformers.

Starting with IN100, Atoll integrateds use a PAIR of toroidal transformers which they have built for them in Spain, not China. Atoll uses a large array of filter capacitance with caps built for them in Japan, not China. Atoll takes the time and expense to run MATCHED MOSFET output transistors. The other guys do NOT.

A transistor is supposed to perform within a tight window. Think of a tuning fork that is spec’d to play at middle C. Every amp needs at least 4 transistors. Now think of four tuning forks not all playing at middle C, but kinda/sorta close. Instead of playing a pure middle C frequency you hear fuzzy artifacts of the various transistors playing in concert. With Atoll, the transistors are MATCHED which means your clarity is like wearing glasses with an accurate RX instead of being more blurry.

Atoll integrateds are built to the same standards as its separates. If you’re buying to build a system from the ground up, I recommend Atoll integrateds.

Atoll separates are exquisite as well. If you are buying to shake hands with other separates, use the Atoll separates to do that task.

Suppose you have an old Threshold preamp and amp you love. The Threshold amp dies. You can replace the Threshold power amp with an Atoll and still run your Threshold preamp with it. When the Threshold preamp goes down too, get the Atoll matching preamp and you’re set. But if you’re not THIS guy, you’d be better off just to get an Atoll integrated and kill two birds with one stone.

There are a couple of smart reasons you might get Atoll separates. Thousands of you have Chinese integrated amps today. You might have Parasound, Cambridge, NAD, Yamaha- whatever. The power amp portion of those brands is generally MUCH worse than the preamp section. You could muscle up by buying an Atoll power amp to run from the Chinese integrated. Then when you find a few pennies more, purchase the matching Atoll preamp down the road.