One Amp To ‘Rule’ Them All....

The question ignores that it is a dance between amplifier & speakers & really all other components in the chain. he analogy created is who is the best dancer of all time in & of themselves & in combination with all dance partners. Fred Astaire as extraordinary & flexible as he was is an entirely different dancer to Gene Kelly or female ones like Syd Charisse, countless ballet dancers or the more modern Bob Fosse. It's like picking the most important ingredient in a complex curry, not understanding the interaction between them all is critical.

I see you later modified the question to no longer look for something   that
"everyone can agree on as a contemporary standard" and/or
"One Amp To ‘Rule’ Them All...." 

To merely "competent". I'm not at all\clear why you should settle for only that or why "everybody's opinion greatly matters in the first place.  Thee is a definitive answer here however that will give you a genuine slice of the superlative at a reasonable price & definitely available to you.  The issue completely becomes consulting the person who can & will give you this answer.  Yourself. You're going to have to figure out what's most important to you aesthetically concerning music & recognize it when you hear it. If this is an end run to to get others to decide for you then you'll never be especially happy in audio or life. You will find what you want in direct proportion to the work you're prepare to put into it.  Something much more extraordinary for the money if you explore preowned options as well. Local ones where you can hear it especially.  It all comes down to how much you want your question answered.

     john1,
     
     Very good points.  
     BrettMcee seems to be looking for the best amps available that can handle the low and fluctuating impedance loads of his several models of Infinity Kappa speakers.  
     Why he phrased his question in such an opaque and convoluted manner continues to be a mystery to me, too.
     He is very slowly and reluctantly beating around the perimeter of his bush of a question for some unknown reason.

Tim     

Tim I am not beating around any bush. 

I’d love to hear some McIntosh gear. It’d be helpful to hear a McIntosh amp that can handle my current speakers. This is a pleasant aside to my primary goal.

My primary goal for beginning this post was: I wish to define for the whole audio community one or more common, competant, reliable, well executed, sonically comprehensive, reasonably affordable amplifiers that we can begin to use as ‘reference amplifiers’ to judge other amplifiers by. That’s it. 

I am interested in hearing the Audiogon community’s continued thoughts.

OP- you may want to start here.
https://forum.audiogon.com/discussions/my-long-list-of-amplifiers-and-my-personal-review-of-each

Like most audiophiles seeking answers such as yours, there is mud and sludge one must go through reading all these experiences with all these amps to find some answers. This guy (who started the post above) has stated he had the opportunity and resources to do much of the work and has tried many quality amps. So it’a good read, to say the least.

Gentlemen, I am well aware of ‘the dance’ that is assembling audio reproduction gear. But we need to start somewhere and so far in my experience amplifiers are the heart and soul of any system. Speakers are a close second. Power quality is third.

And honestly, still being relatively new to serious audiophilia, ‘the dance’ seems more like a slow-motion mosh pit than any dance I’ve ever seen.

I am 44 and a professional visual FX artist. I know art. I know tech. I know some engineering. Audiophile land is a weird wild world and not always forthcoming or inviting. It’d be nice if we worked together to help each other out.