I make my statement based on a tech's perspective. I've had many of these N2's come across my bench, all with the same basic issue... problems with the PA. Either they were biased too high, tuned too hot (300W PEP on SSB is WAAAAY too much for these radios with that small of a heatsink) or just plain mosfet failure.
I have never been a big fan of the "all-in-one" radios that have a PA built into them on the bottom. I understand it's a convenience thing, to have the radio and amp in one unit, but the problems associated with that convenience isn't worth the potential problems down the road.
If you want great AM and SSB performance, run a Cobra 148GTL (philly) or a Grant XL, with a nice class AB amp like a Messenger or something from the Palomar Magnum series. But, of course, that is just my lowly .02 worth.
~Cheers~