Help me pick and amp and pre-amp

Integra DHC 80.2 - or the 80.3 if you must have the latest. Both are 9.2 channel. The 80.2s are going for very good prices right now since Integra dealers want to clear the shelves for the newer model. Onkyo sells the same as the 80.2 in the PR-SC5508 preamp processor. I presume the 5509 is coming but I haven't read anything on it yet. The 80.3 looks pretty good on paper but there isn't all that much different between it and the 80.2. One of these days I'll sit down and compare the two.

Marantz has the AV7005 preamp processor with an MSPR of $1499.

Integra also has a lower priced model in the 40.2 - it has most of what the 80.2/80.3 has but does not have balanced outputs. No big deal for most of us.

The cheapest preamp processor on the market today is the Emotiva UMC-1 - stay away from it unless you like fiddling around with trying to get things working right. Its got more bugs than an Texas swamp.

Form amps you can save a few dollars by going with Emotiva amps - the XPA-5 gets rave reviews by all who own them - as do all their amps. I have an Integra DHC 40.1 with an Emotiva UPA-7 amp - sounds absolutely great. If you are going for 7 channels you can add an XPA-2 for the front L/R speakers. If you have a small listening area or just don't care about reference level ear bleeding sounds look at the Sherwood Newcastle A965 7 channel amp. Its rated at 160wpc into 4ohms.

I would avoid McIntosh unless you can buy the modern pre, at least in terms of your pre/pro, they tended to run behind the curve for HT (the amps are another story). Rotel is a similar story; again the amps are solid while the older processors tend to command higher prices than their features support. An Integra, Marantz, Yamaha, Denon, Onkyo (which is the same thing as Integra), etc front-end will be most up to date in terms of decoders, room corrections, etc; amplifiers are a bit less dramatic - Rotel, McIntosh, Integra, Emotiva, Parasound, and so on are all suitable as long as they satisfy your power targets and fit your budget.

I would strongly consider using a receiver as a front-end, simply because it gives you a lot more options (like Yamaha, Sony ES, Denon, and so on), and either an external amplifier or use the receiver's amps (most of the higher end receivers you'll be looking at (most high end receivers are within your price range) will have more than suitable amplifiers; the A965 for example will offer little gain over something like the Denon 4311 or 5308, however you can mate a receiver to the A965 for less than the price of either of those receivers).

Does Mac even have anything in your budget that could be considered modern? Rotel has the RSP-1570 but it doesn't have near the features of the ones I linked to. Its been around for over 2 years. It has no room correction software. No 3D support - yeah no big deal but why shackle yourself down the road?