It depends upon how good of sound quality one wishes, and the expense. How much is one willing to compromise?
The problem now is that no one has the knowledge or is capable of doing it, so compromise is the deal of today.
First, a certain amount of gain is needed in a system. Too low of gain and the volume control has to be turned
all the way up. Too much gain and noise, hum, more gain stages are used than needed, with each gain stage (or buffer stage) deteriorating the sonics.
A question to ask; how good is an analog gain stage in a cd player? I have not heard one yet that was all that great. Synergy will only go so far.
What about an integrated amp, one with the preamplifier included in the basic amplifier? And then using an external passive volume control. Well, one runs into real problems with capacitance, resistance, resonance problems etc, all which take away from the quality of the music. This includes resistance and transformer types. LED types are included.
Integrateds have the problem of musical feedback through the power supply as well.
Another problem with integrateds is how is it listening tested for accuracy/naturalness, simply auditioning? That is not going to cut it. See saw? Well, that is better than nothing, but one is expending tons of money on different purchases.
Look at everything for sale on the forums. That is good for a laugh, but too sad to do so.
Let's take separates. The preamplifier can be specially listening tested for accuracy/naturalness due to the lower gain of each. The amplifier can also be, but who knows how, or is willing to do so? The 28db gain amplifier pretty much excludes itself because of its integrated, way too high gain nature.
Why all the companies/designers who don't have the know how to provide the best sonics? Why are they still in business? If only the competent were in business, they would have more business, since the amateurs would be gone, and the customer would have a better product.
I guess the conclusion is to do the see saw principle and hopefully get a loaner.
cheers
steve