100W, 200W, or 300W?

@auxinput curious, what amps were those? What are you using now with your 805D3s?

The 250 watt monoblocks were Emotiva XPA-1L.
The 500 watt monoblocks were Emotiva XPA-1

Currently, I’m using Emotiva XPR-1 monoblocks (1000 watt) for my front stage (left/center/right/sub). They have all been completely rebuilt / upgraded. Neotech OCC copper for all internal wiring. 24 x 10,000uf Mundorf caps for main power supply. Nichicon FG/KW for all amp boards. Upgraded WIMA film caps and KEMET film-on-foil caps for all amp boards.   Furutech fuses.

Obviously I’m not anywhere using the full 1000 watts. If I crank it with a heavy bass effects movie, I can get the sub amp to about 70% (which is about 1200 watts into 4 ohm subwoofer load). But the other amps never get above 30% or so with the extreme peaks. The XPR amps have LED lighting on the front that shows how much power it’s generating (like the dials on McIntosh amps).

The more power you have the better your ability to drive worse speakers.  It is better to have always more power and not use it, rather than needing more power and not having it.

If you go with Mac skip the 5300 and go for 7200. It should be more than sufficient for your speakers. Ma7200 is a complete package, an excellent DAC and pre amp all in one unit. You'll also save on cables with an integrated. Don't make your life complicated with separates. 

However, I'd advise you to forget the Mac entirely and go for Luxman L-509X. Much better amp in all respects than Mac.You'll have to add a DAC, or get a nice streamer with a DAC ( aurender or lumin). 

 I say this and I own a two Mac amps, preamp, and av processor. I think your speakers deserve a better amp. I was also initially entranced by the blue meters and mid century modern look and bought all Mac equipment. They're not bad at all, very lush, powerful and warm sounding. But once I heard what other amps could do with my speakers, I could no longer live with Macs. I agree with auxinput, Mac is very laid back and mild.

You know what would sound even better? A tube amp. Once you hear a quality tube amp, you'll never forget that sound. I believe that's where the real audiophilia begins. What type of music do you listen to? 

Interesting dilemma as I considered the MC 7200,MC 89000 and MC 302. 
My starting point was a NAD C 375 BEE and ultimately I went with the MC302. 
I believe more power provides more control for the speaker so I wouldn’t fear overkill. 
Your decision is more about value per dollar and for that I’d suggest you consider going with an integrated amp if your current head unit cannot do that. I have McIntosh C 2600 pre amp and MC 302 - it’s awesome and there are numerous combos at the investment level that are excellent as well. 
The 7200 has a DAC that is a step ip from your Sonus and the 100 watt difference from the 302 is not easily heard. 
As an aside, sound delivery from my system is delivered smoothly and listening sessions often are hours I duration because I don’t get any fatigue. 

Thanks all,

Learning a lot here and using your info to do follow-on research. For sure, no decision until acoustic panels arrive and go up (end of the July, early Aug?) then we’ll see where things go from there. Budget isn’t unlimited which would probably rule out some of the more exotic options (Pass labs, for example).

My initial thought is that the B&Ws are on the brighter side of things. While I’m very happy with them, I want to make sure that I don’t choose gear that makes them brighter. I want to do as much as possible with hardware (speakers, amp, treatment) before leaning on DSP for the final round of tweaks and corrections.

@auxinput thanks for that info! Sounds like too much power isn’t an issue and neither would be the bass from your experience - since most of the external subs that I’ve looked at seem to have their own class D power source... so the amp I’m looking for now is just to drive the 2 speakers. And in a room of this size - there is probably only so much power one could take before their ear drums implode.

@ei001h I’ve read very favorable things about the Luxmans. My main concern is how well will they pair with my speakers? B&W is already on the bright side of the things and it seems from reading (and videos) that the Luxmans are also a bit on the bright side - that’s one of my reasons for considering Mac. The Macs with the transformers seems to be a bit more laid back and more forward in the mid range which seems to align with a good strategy to handle the speakers. As you own both Luxman and Mac what would be your thoughts on that?

Tubes are an area where I’d like to play around in the future - a few paths for that if I went the Mac route - for example, get a 7200, then later there is the option to run a tube pre into it and bypass the built-in one essentially turning it into a 200 wpc amp. Or with the 302, obviously, you could just get different preamps for it without having to swap out the amp stage. Both options have nice growth paths.

I listen to almost all music (rock, jazz, classical, r&b, pop, rap, electronic, musicals... very little country though), but the bulk of my listening these days is focused on rock, pop, and vocal jazz. Lots of stuff from the 60s-80s right now, although it’s still fun to spin up some NiN from the 90s - forget his stuff after that! ;-)

@mrklas Curious, what speakers are you running with those?
Thanks