wanted your opinions on the above please. what’s the general consensus if you wish to add a power amplifier - should you stay with the in-house option or explore other brand alternatives?
As many companies do not even match their pre and power offerings unless you are seriously wedded to a brand then it is always best to listen to as many alternatives as possible . I would comment that it is more important to get a power amplifier that suits your speakers and drives them well rather than worry about the pre/power combination.
What configuration are we talking about here? Integrated amp acting solely as pre-amp, or bi-amping with integrated driving high frequencies and power amp the bass? Gain matching is important for the latter and can be a reason to stick with amps from the same brand intended to be used in this way.
It might be beneficial if you could give us full details of what you have in mind. Filling in the equipment list in your profile would help too .
The answer as always,it depends!
biamping with the integrated? Same make etc
using it as a pre only? Anything you want.
future plans?
do you need to use the integrated? 9/10 it will be a bottleneck with regards to noise
Each to their own. I have to say in my experience passive bi-amping made minimal improvements that were easily bettered by spending overall on one, better power amp.
Active bi-amping is a different matter, but involves a lot more complexity.