Audiophiles hifi appreciation thread old and new

presumably I Loose something by not having a separate amp?

Well, you lose a box cluttering up your tiny listening room 😀
Yes, there's a reason why high end systems use separate boxes for everything. You might get a slight audio improvement at your budget by going for an integrated amp and passive speakers, and that route is easier to upgrade later. It's up to you to decide whether you want minimalist but inflexible or cluttered and hackable, I don't think there's going to be much in it from the listening chair ab initio on your budget.

You need volume attenuation (or volume control if your prefer). Your individual records will vary wildly in volume. To compensate for this you will need an easily accessible knob to change the amp gain.

The reason I avoided active monitors in my list is the volume control. Unless you get a set with a remote volume knob (I have a set like this) but the remote will blow your budget.

Sure you could use an app but that's also often not simple or nice to use.

Main advantage of active speakers is amps matched to the drivers by the manufacturers and short cable runs from amp to driver. Overall though they are cheap class d amps and depending on the design prone to overheating in tiny speaker cabs. Also when they fail it tends to happen suddenly and completely.