Hey BA,
My personal opinion is that "I" like seperates better than integrateds and receivers. Everyone else is certainly free to chose their component source as they see fit. I happen to own, and have owned quite a few receivers (as you can see in my avatar) and integrated amps over the years. This is important now, "my" personal preference is seperates. As a matter of fact, I had, and sold, a mint (I can e-mail you pictures of it) Hitachi SR-2004 and preferred my Pioneer SX-1250 receiver over it in every catergory except the tuner section. Three or four years ago those SR-2004's were selling for $150 to $250 (I paid $200 for my mint one) on eBay, while the SX-1250's were going for $400 to $600, and for very good reason, the SX-1250 sounded, and performed much better than the SR-2004 in "my" opinion. I've had a couple of Pioneer SX-1280's and 1980's and still prefer seperates. I've owned Sansui integrated amps (the AU series) and receivers G-9000, G-8000, G-6000, etc, etc, etc. I've also had quite a few of the Yamaha, Technics and Kenwood receivers and integrated amps and "I" still prefer the seperates. Someday, just have a listen to someone's decent seperates set up if you haven't already and let me know what you think after that. It's all a journey my friend, and mine still isn't finished.........
Retro