I have the Plinius SB-301 driving Revel Salon 2s. It is a fast, powerful, clean amplifier with great dynamics, stereo imaging ability and bass control and weight. I mostly listen to rock but do enjoy an occasional orchestral piece by Tchaikovsky, Beethoven, Stravinsky etc., and the Plinius handles the dynamism and slam of those pieces superbly. I am very happy with it and don't see any other solid state power amp knocking it off its perch, unless I go completely nuts and embark down the Class A road with Gryphon, Edge or some other hugely expensive brand to get the last few percent out of the Salon 2s' tweeters.
When I was auditioning equipment in the fall I did hear Classe driving 802Ds. Forget what the front end was which certainly could have had an impact. I thought the low end was pretty good but the mids and high end sounded a bit lifeless and I didn't really like the sound of the combo much. This was with rock and I would think really dynamic classical recordings would suffer even more.
I haven't heard the Bryston with 802Ds but have heard it with other speakers. It was very clean and detailed, but I thought it lacked dynamics and overall is a bit reticent compared to the Plinius.
Haven't heard the Chord.
The Pass gear mentioned above is excellent, but if you've got a large room I think you'll want more power than what the xa100.5s provide - and the xa160.5s list for over two times what the Plinius SB-301 does. For quite a bit less than that kind of money you could get two Plinius SA-103s or Clayton monoblocks and feed your 802Ds a tasty Class A diet.
