Mcintosh 601's vs Classe CA-M600's

Mike,

Agree. Sounds like a great match...sonics and power.

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).

Mike,

Haven't compared those exact models you named to my XA's but have heard other amps in those lines and the Pass was much more to my liking.

I had a Mac MC2000 (4 KT88's per side) and it put out a lot more heat than my Pass. I would bet your 2301's put out more heat than Pass. Yes, the XA200's "draw" 1400 watts from the wall but the actual temp of the heat sinks is about 50 degrees above room temp (same for the 100 or 200 watt ones). Again, that's at the tip of heat sink. When I measure the top of the amp it's around 110 degrees. I just measured one of my 300b tubes at a little more than 200 degrees. Thankfully I only have 2 of them. I would imagine your KT88 are similar and you have 16 (?) of them.

The Pass amps do not put out any heat when they are on "in standby". When you switch to operate they start to heat up. To my ears they sound good in just a few minutes and continue to improve for 30 mins to an hour. No need to leave them on all the time.

Mike,

There are those who think that smaller amps have reasons they sound a little better than their bigger brothers. I lean that way as long as you are NOT anywhere near clipping.

Nelson has figured out a way to make this less of an issue if someone does need the power. One thing that's nice is that nice blue meter that just sits there doing nothing UNTIL you start leaving the class A. You still have lots of power after that but if you like to bathe in pure class A, it's a sign you need more power.

Case in point: My first XA was the 30.5. It drove my Magnepan 3.6's easily and only on the louder peaks the meter would wiggle but it still sounded great. Being a mono block fan, it was an easy jump to the 100.5's and that became a match from heaven and the needle hasn't moved.

btw, my 30.5 went to work driving the little brother to your Strads, the Guarneri Homage.