Is Marantz AV8805 good enough pre amp for McIntosh MC8207


In the market for a new preamp to hook up to my MC8207 and was wondering if the Marantz AV8805 is worth the investment. I was gonna go with the McIntosh MX-122 but that thing is already outdated when it comes to new features and it costs twice as much. I don't have a store to go to to listen to the AV8805 and this is gonna be a blind buy for me this time. This setup is gonna be for my new home theater room that I am about to start building and planning to add another McIntosh amp down the road for the rest of the speakers and probably it's gonna be another MC8207 to be able to fully use the 8805.
tomiiv30
I have the Mac MC452 paired with a Marantz 8805.  Sounds phenomenal, been testing with 2ch and have to say they work well together.  I am using the combo with Martin Logan Impression 11A’s and have to say the sound stage, instrument separation, and clarity are fantastic.  I do like the fact that you can stream Tidal native FLAC from the HEOS app, the sounds quality is amazing.

You can’t go wrong at all with the Marantz and a Mac combo.  Especially at the Marantz price point.  I was planing on picking up a tube pre down the road (probably the C2600) but the 8805 has pushed the need for that out for a long while.
@eziggy7

I am really happy with the Marantz AV8805, this thing is ridiculously good and worth the money, when it comes to processing music in stereo or 4K Blu Ray HDR whatever movies, nothing comes close to the 8805 in its price range. I had an older Onkyo receiver and thought that thing was good but when I hooked up the 8805 to the MC8207 there was a really really big difference in sound and processing and separation, clarity, you name it the 8805 will do it. I was sceptical at first and was thinking that I should've went with the MX122 but man I think IMHO the Marantz outdid the MX122 by far.

I also bought new C52 and a used/demo MC452 and it was phenomenal pairing between both but the MC452 had some problems from the get go and had to return it and bought a brand new MC462.  Still haven't unboxed but I am expecting a better sound comparing the the MC452.
@caphill 

Thank You

Now the search and demoing for some new tower speakers begins, have to find a good match for the MC462/C52. My B&W 683 S2's are not a match at all, they sound a lot better when hooked up to the MC462/C52 but I need more powerful once to get the max potential from the amp/pre combo.


Yes you definitely need to upgrade your speakers from the B&W 683 S2, especially now that you have the Mac C52/MC462 combo for your stereo listening to music. You can move up B&W line such as the 803 D3 or the 802 D3 and they will sound very good paired with the Mac MC462 amp. And you will need to get a matching center channel speaker for them, which is the B&W HTML1 D3 center speaker. For surrounds you can get the B&W 805 D3 unless if you're using those in-wall surround speakers right now. 
Then you will be all set.