I have Nuforce Reference 9 V3 SE mono amps w/ TDSS level 3 upgrades. The Ref 9's I bought used for $1400 for the pair about 5 years ago. Liked them so much I had TDSS do it's upgrades which made very good amps a into super amps and more stable. They have bettered very expensive amps in every system I've compared them to at friends houses or at a dealers. Obviously the standard Ref 9's are well within your budget and if you wanted to at a later time, you could go the route I did.
Bob
Bob