Power/Current: How much is realistic?

my mcintosh mc602's manual says it's current is 150 amperes per chanell. is this true

No. Not unless it can make well over 22,500 watts!! And that is giving it the benefit of the doubt- that it can drive 1 ohm.

@almarg I think ML specs their speakers the way they do because they are panels rather than point sources. In that regard a microphone placed 1 meter from the speaker will not pick up all the energy that the speaker radiates. If Stereophile measured it at 86 dB, 10 feet away from the speaker the sound pressure effectively is as if a point source were being used that is 5-6dB more efficient, so 91dB might be practically more accurate. This is why so many panel speakers seem crazy inefficient, but in reality aren't that hard to drive.

Thanks Ralph (@Atmasphere). As you saw I factored in a loss of 3 db per doubling of distance, rather than the 6 db loss per doubling of distance that would apply to box-type speakers acting essentially as point sources. But even so, per your comments I was probably being overly pessimistic in my SPL estimates.

So the 109, 106, and 103 db SPL numbers I calculated for powers of 600, 300, and 150 watts, at a 3 meter listening distance, should be even higher!

Thanks again. Best,
-- Al

I own a Sanders designed innersound electrostatic Amplifier.  It is an older version of his current amplifier, though not as capable as his current Magtech. I have used it to drive quad ESL 63 speakers and it is a wonderful, very capable amplifier. I believe it would be very capable of driving your Martin Logan electrostatic speakers. It can completely dump the current into a challenging load in an electrostatic loudspeaker.

Was considering Pass x600.8 or x260.8 Would i ever use that power with these panels. Would there be a difference in sound or just a waste of power.
Thanks

That should work just fine.