ozzy: I own the Carver 350 mono amps. They are very good, but touching the tubes will burn your fingers. So much for that BS.
I have these amps. It gets very warm, but I can touch the tubes without getting burned. I saw Bob Carver show this by putting his palm on the output tubes and holding them there for good number of seconds and not flinching at all.
As for the 'listening to the room' claim, the feature is always on, so I am not able to compare with and without that feature to evaluate any sonic difference.