The Pros And Cons Of Buying A Single-Brand Hi-Fi System

Matching stack, or mix and match? Finding the right answer to that question depends on a variety of thingsincluding your own aesthetic requirements

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While old and new may blend wonderfully when it comes to barn conversions and Lucy Dacus covering Carole King, it doesn’t always in the case of hi-fi system aesthetics. We should know – on our rack we have an old-school, dial-heavy Marantz integrated amplifier sitting below a sleek, minimalist Cambridge Audio streamer. And, to make it worse, one is silver, one is black. The company badges don’t remotely line up. Visually, they are as compatible as wedding invitations and the Goosebumps font.

On the flip side, there are surely very few things more beautiful to the eye of a hi-fi enthusiast than a handsome rack of matching separates. Naim’s streamlined black-punched-withilluminated-green, heavy metal components spring to mind, as do the attractive tiers of blue glow that come from the marriage of multiple illuminated McIntosh electronics. You can probably picture those, but if the image of a Chord Electronics source stack is beyond your mental conjuring, just take a look at that beauty on the opposite page and try not to drool. It displays the kind of uniformity of which an army lieutenant would be proud.

But while aesthetics are important – more so to some people than others, naturally – and are the most obvious advantage of keeping it in the family when it comes to building a system of separates, it shouldn’t be what first and foremost determines your system. There are other things to take into consideration, starting with component compatibility.

Strong sonic synergy