This is an area where I do think the technology has brought the price down. Before the home theatre phenomenon bloomed in the '90s, i was using a variety of processors, including Lexicon, Fosgate, etc. When discrete multi-channel was standardized I bought Meridian components, which were fairly expensive and a pain to program. The Meridan eventually grew long in the tooth, replaced by McIntosh and then eventually to a box shop mid-range Marantz, which at least for HT purposes (I don't use it for music), sounds better, is easier to program, has a basic form of room correction and is a fraction of the price of the earlier 'state of the art' pre-pros. I guess there is still a market for those, but at least for my use, after having had some big, fancy HT projection systems with full sized racks of equipment for line doubling, amplification, woofer servo control (old Velodyne) and assorted other components, I enjoy the simplicity of a much more modest flat screen, pre-pro, multichannel amp and modest satellite array with a decent subwoofer. Fraction of the price. Remember the Faroujda components that cost well over 10k US for upscaling? Now a cheap chip installed in most TVs and processors. Perhaps my standards are lower now- I gave up laser disc, DVD, Blu, etc. and just stream movies. The prices on HT gear do seem to have come down as performance has increased.
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 I was gonna go with the McIntosh MX-122 but that thing is already outdated when it comes to new features and it costs twice as much.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.