Roger Modjeski of Music Reference/RAM Tubes said he considered the 8B superior to the Model 9, and didn’t much care for the Citation amps at all.
I think the 8b was a better amp than the model 9 as well. But the Citation 2 was better than either; one way that it was better was better output transformers. I do prefer some of the construction of the Marantz power amps but the Citation is no slouch in that regard- most of its circuitry is built up on turret boards.