Thanks j_j and other commenters for your answers to my innocent questions regarding amps. But I'm still none the wiser! (Because I realise "it depends"). I suppose it prompts the question: why all these different types of amps? After all these years couldn't we have come up with a topology that just 'does the job'? The literature for Quad's current dumping amps seems to make quite a compelling case for their being something like the perfect amp, but outside a small band of enthusiasts they don't seem to have taken the audio world by storm.
On the other hand, can we separate the true merits of the amps from pre-conceived notions about Quad, or the fact Peter Walker was despised by the High End fraternity for his straight talking?
Like Tim (I think), I'd like to separate the High End excesses from what is a good workmanlike, scaleable amplifier that does no more and no less than what is required to faithfully reproduce the source. Rather than labelling it "What's Good Enough", I think that such an amplifier would, in fact, be "The Best", but just not "The Fastest", "The Most Expensive" etc.
(I'm also interested in what can be done with Class D and direct digital amps, but happy with class AB, B etc. until they're perfected).