recommendations for amplifiers that don't emit tons of heat

@audioman58
I’m not 100% on what you mean by braking... assuming it’s analogy for greater control over the speakers, that’s my experience too. The power isn’t so I can rock out and anger the neighbors, but the opposite. In my experience, more powerful amplifiers don’t need the volume as high to get a full, convincing sound.

Is there a point where it gets too powerful, and the sound suffers? I’ve read extremely powerful amplifiers can sound sluggish. Not sure what to make of that.

And budget is $2000. I prefer the bang for the buck of buying used... reputation for reliability is important

Almost any other solid state amp out there will be cooler than the KSA-150 or the VT100. Just saying.

My McCormacks' get pretty darn hot during the blossoming buzz,
 had them cranked for about 2 hours, at must yell to hear guy next to you, as we were in the backyard, and the speakers pointed towards open windows.
 They performed magically, the new capacitors are not even fully broken yet...... as told by Dan Babineau. 
Very happy with these.
The warmup is a bit long, but once zero'd in, its just stunning, its like a laser beam of sound just directly hits you and is perfect !

will never part with them.

600W@8 / 1000W@4
all the power i will ever need.

Look at Nuforce Reference 18 monos used or some of their new stuff under Nuprime in that price range

tripg- you read into the analogy correctly. We have an A'gon comrade with Anthem I225 Integrated amp. It's rated at 225 watts into 8 ohm/310 into 4ohm. He's running Paradigm Studio 100 v3. The speakers do not flinch or suffer any driver compression. He works the amp hard and it does not get hot. And its not sluggish. These are in your pricepoint - new with warranty. Now, are their more transparent amps out their? Of course. 
https://www.anthemav.com/products-current/collection=performance/model=pva-2/page=overview

https://www.anthemav.com/products-current/type=amplifier/model=mca-225/page=overview

Ayre also makes some great 5 series amps. 150 watts into 8 ohms. They should run around $2250 - $2600 used. Very transparent.