An A/V receiver and a high-end integrated amplifier look similar from the outside. They are miles apart from each other.
A receiver tries to do everything. It decodes multichannel surround formats. It switches video signals between sources. It runs room correction software, often with auto-calibration microphones. It amplifies seven or nine or sometimes more channels. It has dozens of inputs and a remote with a bunch of buttons, and most of its budget gets spent on those features rather than what really matters—how it sounds.
A high-end integrated amplifier does almost none of that. It has a preamplifier section, a stereo power amplifier section, a handful of inputs, a volume control, perhaps a phono stage and maybe a streamer—and not much else. Every dollar that didn't go into video switching or surround decoding went into the audio circuitry — better preamp design, more substantial power supplies, higher-quality output stages, more attention to grounding and signal routing.
And for those of us that care about sound quality first the difference between the two couldn't be bigger: receivers are somewhat two dimensional, flat and often agressive sounding. A well designed high-end integrator can sound pretty danged close to a separates stack.
So, for watching movies and inviting Godzilla into your living room, a good surround receiver's a must.
If music is what you're into most, then the choice is simple.
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