Are marantz power amps any good?

Will look into those yogiboy!!

Marantz seemed to have returned to its roots a decade ago by offering true HiFi made in Japan.  When my arcam alpha 8 bi-amp setup gave up on me, I shopped for an integrated and finally settled on the PM8004 by Marantz. Balanced, polite, exceptional imaging, built like a tank, in short a major step up from Arcam in every way.
It is 4-5 years old now, stays on 98% of the time, and it's working great.
The pre-amp section however is the weak point as it degrades the sound greatly when it is engaged (less dynamic, weaker imaging).
Their CD/SACD players are also top notch based on customers feedback.

I read that this years hdams are vastly improved , and quite a few people I know say that for two channel they are great now !!

I keep hearing to go intergrated with ht bypass , just trying to figure out how that would work with my marantz avr 7008 

Nesto, you would connect your front AVR preouts to the HT bypass input of an integrated.  When you watch movies, the integrated then acts as a power amp for the front speakers.  You would connect all your music sources to the other integrated inputs and you would not use the AVR for stereo listening.  Make sense?