For old school - my Eden WT and newly acquired Mesa M9. Both have an actual tube in the pre and have awesome tone and power.... $600-$900 range.
Class D - Genzler Magellan 800, Bergantino Forte ($800-1200), or for a very inexpensive and surprisingly great sounding back up/practice - a Carvin BX500. I actually use this one on small gigs... its probably a better amp than I give it credit.
That being said - I love my Eden and Mesa... heavy, but I can really hear the difference. It comes down to personal preference for sound... just gotta go play through some! Good Luck!
I have to second the recommendation for the Eden WT series. Since Eden came out with the WTP series, there are a fair amount of the WT series out there at decent prices and the WT series amps are built like tanks. I have an Eden WT500/800. That's a WT500 that was upgraded from 250-watt per channel @4 ohms and 500-watts bridged @8 ohms to 400 watts per channel and 800-watts bridged.
So mine has the power of the old WT800A but doesn't have the Hi/Low bi-amp circuit. I run that through a DNS410 by DNA (David Nordschow Amplification) and I can literally play anywhere with it. It's a crazy loud, clear, and articulate combination. I very often get asked to turn down, even at outdoor events.
I recently started using a couple of Eden EX112's. Got one specifically to play a brewpub where we host an open mic we play each Friday. I used my back up amp (Eden Nemesis RS400) to run it and it sounded great. In fact it sounded so good, I bought another one and usually run both of them because two together sounds better than one.
Two 112's is a nice option in any medium sized club where pulling in my 410 would be a pain. We play one club that has about a 32" tall stage with no steps up. Lifted my 410 up there once, use two 112's there now.
I use my WT500/800 when running both 112's because they are both 4 ohm cabs and since my amp won't handle a 2 ohm load, I have to plug them into separate channels. Price on them was only $269 each in a number of places. If you get them in 8 ohm and your amp can run down to 2 ohm load, you could run 1, 2, 3, or 4, whatever you need for wherever you are playing. That would be a very modular and versatile set-up.
I see there is a WT550 (300 watts @ 8 ohms, 500 watts @ 4 ohms, 750 watts @ 2 ohms) for sale in the Eden forum Classifieds section right now. Odds are there are more on E-bay and Craig's list too. If you look at them there is an A model (2004 and earlier) and B model (2005 and later). The only difference is that the 2 ohm power on the A model is 620-watts rms instead of 750-watts rms on the B model.
