Budget amp recommendation needed

A second for the Odyssey Stratos w/ 120K caps, available right in your price range. Will drive most anything, has lots and lots of current. If you lean towards soundstage, dynamics, and detail, hard to beat. Not very warm, though, if that is your preference.

What speakers are those with the 78db rating?

Aragon 8008BB competes with VERY high end gear. In your price range though you'd be looking at the ST. 78DB is absurdly low sensitivity though....what are they?

Thanks a lot for the responses. The speakers are actually an old pair of JBL l100's I can't seem to part with. The specs say 78db but that is at 15 feet. From what I've read, that is more like 90db at 1 meter.

I've run the speakers on all kinds of amps/receivers and they really seem to open up with a 100WPC or so.

I am also looking at some Vandersteen 2C's that could end up in this system at a later date.

If you an get your hands on one A S/H ME 240. There happens to be one on eBay Australia right now. The one for sale is the standard model. I owned the remote control Hi cap option version. I don't know the seller so I cannot comment on the actual condition. All I know is when I owned it I loved it. It was my first real taste of high end amplification for speakers anyway.
Biased at about 2.4 watts RMS in class A with precision A/B switching for a total of 90 watts RMS into 8 Ohms and I measured 125 into 4 Ohms. Point being this little freak sounds as good as the early Krells that I have heard and features technology that still makes most modern high end look agricultural. It may look svelte but it can deliver 42 amps into transient musical peaks. It sounds way more ballsy than the ratings suggest. You likely haven't heard your JBL's at their best yet. You will with this. Problem for you is that you would need to run a step up transformer for Aussie 240v Small price to pay for sonic bliss. Into tubes now and only run transistor amps in my computer room. Cheers