Integrated brand choice -- Simaudio, Hegel or Mark Levinson?

Did you ever consider the Krell 300i ?

Not long ago I had a good long demo of the SimAudio 340iX & the Hegel 590 driving Harbeth M40.2 speakers in a dedicated room..I was NOT impressed with either.The Simaudio WAYYY too much plastic for so much $ & the headphone circuit was HORRIBLE!The SimAudio sound is a LONG WAYYY from the beautifully voiced original i5...The Hegel was ok but sounded dry to me,no life,no soul..A week later a friend lent me his Sugden A21Signature(base model 23wpc.)& WOW,WHAT A WONDERFUL presentation.EVERYTHING I love about Class A SE tubes in a smaller,lighter package..Needless to say I’m now converted away from tubes to pure Class A Solid State...You owe it yourself to at least add Sugden & Pass Labs to the shortlist...

The question remains as to how much of a family resemblance there is between the 340 and the 600i v2, which is more in the OP's price bracket.