Best vintage amps (late 70s / early 80s) under $3k?

All these posts and no mention of Bryston. It puzzels me. They are probably the best value on the planet in SS. For under 3k you will get a 3Bsst2 160 watts a side that will drive anything you put behind them. They sound awsome leaning toward tube and are still well within a 20 year warranty.

Or spend 1/3 that and get a 3Bst which is also very good. You will have enough $ left over to upgrade another component. Maybe match with one of their pre amps for the synergy. 

I currently have several target area amps with one in my second system being used on a fairly regular basis, a ML 23.5, main system has a ML333. At work I run a Bedini 100/100 and because it is one of the first amps I ever bought new, a Perreaux 3150 as standby. Any and all would come in below your budget, and most well below. I run all three stsyems with a tube pre (two ARC and one Quicksilver). Since the ML are att AB heat is not much of an issue, Bedini is A as I recall but does not run terribly hot and I have left it on days at a time. 

My  0.02

Interesting no mention of Hafler. I’d say a DH500 is right up your alley.

@mrdecibel point taken but I dont think your argument is valid - the OP put several constraints on recommendation, most notable $3k or less, so should I be wasting his time recommending my main or 2nd system amplifiers one of which exceeds budget by a factor of 20?
i think not. 
happy listening...

@tomic601. I am not looking at any of this as an argument. To everyone else. I owned, and enjoyed, the Pioneer M22. And, my recommendation of the Nuforce is a sensible one, and in my experience, it betters many things mentioned here, and that is suitable to the desires of pts, without having to spend up to 3K, and without producing heat. I have owned every manufacturer mentioned ( with the exception of Atmosphere ), and many models from all of them. I like this Nuforce amp, as I bought it for the shits and giggles of it, at the $499 price. After a few hundred hours of constant music playing through it, I was quite impressed. I have tried it with several different types of speakers, and now run it exclusively through my mains ( 104 db horns ). There is no amp from my past I wish to own again. Not my Krell, not my CJ, not my AR, not my Stasis, not my M22, nor any from the above. I am curious as to why nobody mentioned McCormack. I am done with tubes, and I am done with Class A. All of those amps did a few things very well. This amp does all things very well. So, I recommend it. I sold 9 amplifiers from my collection this year, 6 of which brought me more than my $499., all because of this little fella. I do caution that it is high gain, with low input sensitivity, and only 80 wpc. I no longer need an amplifier that runs the equivalent to 4 or 5 incandescent light bulbs. I have a stove top for my eggs. I am happy listening. Although the STA200 is not class D, I do feel class D is the future, so why go backwards. I am not making the claim that it is the end all, for all people, but anyone I have spoken to who owns one ( some based on my recommendation ), loves theirs. Thank you, Enjoy ! MrD.