Separates win, at five times the price

Separates beat all-in-one devices every day. I have heard it too many times to pretend otherwise. They also cost about five times as much, before you count the cables, the rack space and the complexity.

The moment I accepted it was the McIntosh MCD12000, a tube DAC with two ESS converters, one per channel, fed by a Rose flagship transport. I compared it with the RS150, the all-in-one I had fallen for, both through the same McIntosh electronics into Sonus faber Amati speakers.

The separates expanded the soundstage and brought a natural vividness, that tube organicness without colouration. Everything sounded right, or more exactly, more convincing to what live sound sounds like. Once you understand why different power supplies and output stages matter, you start dismissing the logic of every all-in-one.

Then you look at the bill, a price tag that is enough to trigger a vertigo. That is why I only recommend separates when the system is already there, about 20% of the front end on a $10,000 to $50,000 system. Below that, the money is better spent on speakers or the room.

Separates win every day. The question is whether the rest of your system is good enough to collect the prize.