I haven't heard the particular Arcam model that you mentioned, it must be new. But Arcam has always made really great integrated amplifiers.

Let me start off by saying that I own Martin Logan's (CLS's which are full range Electrostats in case anyone is curious.)I haven't heard the Martin Logan Source speakers. But I am familiar with many, many of their other speakers. Some of their stuff has been truly world class. It's an electrostatic speaker (the type of technology it uses) so it might be promising. For a number of years Martin Logan has been drifting towards a market position of "life style" product (think bose, nakamichi, and B&O.) A lot of the stuff that they are currently putting their name on no knowledgeable person could call "High-End" with a straight face. It's sad really. This speaker might be an exception, I'm not willing to write them completely off.

Another speaker that has a very, very similar sonic presentation (although they are using different technology to achieve that sound) are the Magnepan speakers. The Magnepans are also more affordable too.

One thing to keep in mind, If you are seriously looking at the Martin Logans or the. Electrostatic speakers are a lot less efficient than regular speakers. They take quite a bit more power (wattage) to make the same amount of sound. This in and of itself isn't a good or bad thing. It's just something to keep in mind when picking amplification. The above goes for Magnepans too.

I love the sound of maggies but must note the MG series I use with my video system takes at least 40 watts of amp to sound good. My PrimaLuna 38 watt KT88 based music amp is not a good fit. My video receiver is only 80 watts and works fine with my Maggies.

It looks like the PM8003 is more expensive (around $500 to $900). It is pretty, though. It is still a two channel integrated amp, and has a MM phono input. So it would probably be fine.

But, if I were you, I might go with the Onkyo A-9555, unless you just listen to the Marantz and like it better, or whatever. (This is coming from a PM7001 owner, by the way). I say this because the Onkyo is highly regarded and cheaper.

i personally am a huge fan of martin logan. I will not claim to know as much as the guys in here do but from what i know martin logan is amazing. as far as mrlowry's comment about being power hungry, this is very true. Martin Logan does counter that with the step up from the source model called the purity. the purity has a built in 200w amplifier. while this may not be the best thing in the audiophile world, it does help as far as amplification. as far as the model the source and the purity would be the entry level models from martin logan. mrlowry also mentioned the cls. martin logan just recently released the 25th anniversary cls called the clx. i don't know what your budget because these guys retail for 25,000 but from what i have read they blow everything out the water. i believe they took home best loudspeaker at the high end audio show this year. that was more a less an aside, but i find martin logan to be a great loudspeaker company. the best advice i could give you is look around for other speakers and see if you like them any better, i for one love my martin logans.

I am also a big fan of Martin Logan. I have a pair of Aerius I's.

While it is true these speakers like a lot of power there is also a hidden benefit in their design. These line source speakers loose only 3db SPL each time you double your distance from them. Whereas regular point source speakers loose 6db for each doubling of distance.

So if you double your distance twice from the reference 1 meter to 4 meters:

Line source speakers will have lost 6db loudness. (you'll need to double power 2 times to get it back)
Point source speakers will have lost 12db loudness. (you'll need to double power 4 times to get it back)

Strange as it may seem line source speakers actually need less power at further distances to achieve the same SPL as point source types.

Now that you're an ML owner be sure to checkout The Martin Logan Club:

http://67.19.167.226/~tdacquis/forum/forumdisplay.php?f=1

It may not have come up yet but make sure not to make any immediate judgments about the sound of the system. Most audio products (speakers, electronics, cables) take at least 100 hours of usage to break in and start to sound their best. The difference varies between subtle all the way to profound. Let us know how it goes.