I'm considering buying a pair of these amps sometime around the end of the year. When, I guess, these will be on sale. I've seen these described as having a forward sound. I prefer a laid back or "polite" sound.

My questions are: Can an amp have a forward sound in the first place? Does the Model 2200 have a forward sound? What would cause an amp to have a forward or laid back sound?

IMHO someone that describes an amplifier as having a specific sound is coloring the amp with their own perception and trying to describe it with flowery words. There are some different types of amps architectures but they all do the same basic thing. The sounds coming from any system are really dependent on two things for 99.9% and those are the source material and the speakers reproducing the source material. IMHO, the rest of the chain is being hyped in some way to promote sales and keep the so called wags employed. Buy the amps you can afford and listen to your system. Do it with enough different amps and you will see there is only very minor deltas.