solid state power amps, golden oldies

The real greats were made before 1980; Levinson ML-2, Rappaport Amp-1, Threshold 400A, 800A and 4000, Bedini 25/25.

Transistrs and IC chips can be an issue with some older gear.Do you homework before you purchase or you may be buying a boat-anchor.

A consideration on older amps might be speaker connections. They might have those old, "useless" spring clips that will not accept bananas or heavy speaker wires. You will also find many with 'captive' power cords, eliminating your choice of upgrade cords.

That said, there are many bargains to be had. Look at Harman/Kardon Citation series, Hafler, Carver, SAE, G.A.S. All were nice companies in their day.

I particularly love the older McIntosh gear for both sound and collector joy.

Nikko amps,
AudioResearch D100,
Nakamichi PA100...

Threshold S/series and the Forte Model #4 would be at your cutoff point