Mcintosh MX136/MC205 vs Anthem D2v/A2


Hello Audiogoners,
I am planning to upgrade my system use 50/50 on both home theater and music.
Current have
B&W804s speakers
B&W ASW825B Sub
B&W HTM2 Center
805 Cary Audio monos
98LP Cary Audio pre
Rega CD player
Denon Reciever
Will buy B&W802D in future
I don't want to replace equipment again when get 802. I haven't listen to MC pre/pro, but did on Anthem.
Anthem sound very clear, but heard a lot of people said Mcintosh go with B&W better.
Please post opinion.
Thank you very much.
kd8606
Tough decision here. I am a McIntosh guy so let's be honest up front on that. I think for the use of both HT and 2 Channel the pros and cons I see are that on the HT side the Anthem will bring you better video processing and has the new BluRay codecs. Also the Anthem is upgradeable.
On the 2 channel side the MX136 (I have a 135) has the front 2 channles is basically a C46 pre amp and the rest is a ver well built pre-pro for HT. But no codec decoding for blu ray. I think on the amp side I would go with the MC205 amp. Once again honest bias here I own one. I use a MC402 for the front 2 channels but used the MC205 for a while while waited for the 402 to arrive. It is a excellent amp and does a great job. I think it is very musical and extremly deep in reserve when the demand arises. One other pro that I think I would add to the Mcintosh amp is resale will most likely be better down the road in addition to sounding very good with B&W.
If you like B&W you will probably like McIntosh. They do sound very good together. I agree with Theo.
I have the D2V with MC303's and Nautilus 802's. I've tried other amps but they sound best with the Mcintosh in my opinion.

Jury is out for me on the Anthem. For 5.1 it's pretty amazing. I don't care for its sound in 2.0 mode on digital sources.