To close the loop on this: I'm just wrapping up a home demo of the CA-2300. Tomorrow the dealer comes to take it back.
B&W is to be congratulated; it's a lovely sounding amp, with clean and controlled, yet dynamic, sound. Tonight I listened to a Beethoven symphony, and notably, the amp stayed completely composed when things got loud. I've found that some otherwise very good gear changes character as the music gets loud, and of course that diminishes realism.
Sad to say, the cooling fan turned out to be an issue for me. After the amp was running for a couple of hours, the fan sped up, and I could hear it between movements and in quiet passages of a string quartet. I'm demoing other gear to see if I can get a similar level of performance in a unit with passive cooling.
Thanks to all who have contributed to the thread so far.
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