Mcintosh 601's vs Classe CA-M600's

Elizabeth,
I admit that I am a McIntosh owner/user (several times over) and that will qualify me as being biased, but still, I must say that you are far more sensible than to paint all of the output of an entire brand with a single brushstroke. There may indeed be models that are dark, or veiled (I do think that the house sound is on the darker side) but they really aren't all veiled.

as an opposite I would go with the MC 601's...the SF needs something like the McIntosh color to sing properly......

Now you know my dilemma! The only consensus of everyone I have spoken with is Pass xa200.5 (or 160.5). I would buy those in a second - if not for the massive heat they put off. I live in Florida! It's not enough. I guess the Parasound JC-1's are not in the same class as these other amps? I'm leery of the ML because its a hybrid amp. Not too keen on hybrid/Class-D. In Mike Framers review of the Anthem M1, I think he politely slams the 53's - without exactly saying: http://www.hometheater.com/content/anthem-statement-m1-amplifier
The Classe amps seems to get better reviews than the 28SST2's.

I meant to say, "it's HOT enough!"

Elizabeth - I've always loved reading your posts. Have you heard the Classe CA-M600's?

Don't those Mac 2301's put out a a lot of heat?

I live in the Southern Calif desert area. We get hotter than you but you have the
humidity on us.

Even with "our" heat, I'd recommend the big Pass. I use the
XA100.5 monos and yes they put out some heat so our air conditioning works
a little harder for a few months in the Summer and that is just for the hours
(maybe 2-6) they are on.

Do you leave your amps on all the time? A nice thing about the Pass is their
standby switch. It keep the caps charged with NO heat and draws only a few
watts. When I switch the amps on, they sound pretty good right away and get
better during the first hour so I don't leave them on 24/7. Their XA.5 amps
aren't really limited to their power rating, that's only how much they put out in
pure class A. Even the 100.5's may be enough for you (and less heat than the
200.5's).