Blue sky walker… i’ve been Bi amping these Mcintosh products for years. The guy is at McIntosh factory told me that the gain is not an issue. The crossover is in the speakers and I use all stock chords with average quality interconnects. I’ve never listen to them against the 901 side by side but the difference in price is pretty substantial, that might justify the difference. It was just a thought, when the 901s came out I wanted to set real bad but I couldn’t justify spending the money. Using rough math there is approximately a $17,000 difference between using two MC 601s And one MC 275 horizontally. I’m not looking for a fight was just an exercise in sound versus budget