In college, I scraped together some money for a Sherwood receiver (no idea what model--from the late 80s), driving Bose 401 speakers. I thought it sounded great at the time. Would love to compare that head to head with my current system. After that, my amp progression was:
Denon receiver (again, no idea what model)
Carver AV-705
Sunfire Cinema Grand (still use that one for my HT system)
Bel Canto Ref 500m monoblocks
Primaluna Dialogue Premium
And while I do like the Primaluna lot, I think the amp journey will continue over time.