Good one Rosstaman, and I've heard the same story all turned around. The fellow I bought my X-600 to power the Apogee Scintilla from also was selling his Rowlands 9tc. He preferred the Pass amps over the Rowlands. I'm using the 600 to power the only 1 ohm speaker there is. There just isn't any more power hungry speaker around than the Scintilla. When this speaker was made, no amp could make it go loud. My Scintillas go real loud, and just like you said, the Pass shows every tiny faintest detail in your recording AND your audio chain. I don't miss the warm (natural?) sound of the Plinius, as I am employing a CDP with a tube output. I control sound nuances with tube rolling. That way I get to keep all the big dynamics and transparency of the Pass.
Krell Amps vs others
My question relates to the powering of speakers that can handle large power loads. Krell is often mentioned as quite good at pushing these type of speakers (ie Dynaudio). What other companies make equally powerful class A amps wih high output into 4 Ohm speakers. My sense is that my Dynaudio Contour 3.3 can take a heavy power load, even more than the 450wpc into 4 ohms they are currently getting from y existing amp.