Amps from the 1980's -- What gear holds up sonically? Reliably?

So many of the names mentioned above were great and are still great today. Many of those older models are a relative bargain for how good they still sound compared to a lot of today's stuff. One name we used to sell that never really got a big name was Bedini. We carried his amps at the same time as Perreaux, Hafler, Nak, Denon, Luxman and Krell. The Bedini amps sounded that absolute best! Unfortunately, John Bedini passed away a little while ago. He was a real pioneer in audio and alternative energy research.

I have a vintage audio research d120. It was recapped in 2008. I got it for a song from audiogon when I was building my very first system. 

Sound is great. Currently powering raidho c1.1 but used to be powering an assortment of dynaudios. This amp doesn't have a great rep but I've read that was mostly because of a bias towards arc tube amps - pun intended, I suppose​.

I swapped an ayon spirit 3 into my system and while it was nice (very nice at that!)...for my preferences the arc was better. That's a testament to how they built this monster. It is a bit of a pain not having an on/off switch and needing to plug it into to the wall to turn it on and vice versa for off.

Klaus over at Odyssey is building me a completely maxed out kismet in a stratos case. I expect it to be a worthy upgrade over this wonderful amp - frankly, from what I can gather, the amp is much older than me!!

My 2-channel setup consists of switching between three amps/receivers. Two are 80's, one is 70's. All are Pioneer: M-72, SA-8800, SX-3800. I've been in a couple of amp blind tests and yes, I'm one of those who don't think there is any sonic difference (given the standard design spiel) between amps. But boy are those old amps much prettier than today's plain ugly boxes (except a few mega-buck ones).

Wow some of you are running 30 years old amps...I have Naim components from 2004 and it seems they are in need of a rebuilt according to many owners and sellers....Gee, they don’t tell you that in the sale pitch...They still sound good to me...Had Meridian 101/105 from the early 80 and these sounded great.

Have a Crown PL Three and SL Two silver face setup driving Tannoy LRM's and JBL 4311's. Don't know if there's a better looking power package (PL Four excluded) than this setup. Can't tell you the ease in which this amp drives my gear. Hasn't EVER given me an issue... put it all away for 10yrs but is now back in my main system. Also have a Nikko Alpha 220/Beta 20 stack that is almost equally impressive although not as handsome. That is now driving a set of ads L1230's in another room. I have had the Nikko equipment since new '82 playing almost every day and it has never required even a bulb. Guess my faves are my vintage Crown and Nikko amp/pre pairs.