I'm certainly old enough to know what Heathkits were. 
I had a good friend in grade 7 who built one for his bass amp. 
I thought he was just being a cheap skate. His Dad was Scottish and his Mom Jewish so we used to bug him about his hereditary  thriftiness.  Turns out Jim was just a very smart guy. He was probably the person who turned me into a equipment geek.    

my Allied (Ratshack) still plays NPR in my shop.

i like, and use, hafler amps.
 
in the past, i've used QSC, Yamaha, Crown, Carvin..... all good.
 
don't get more than you need..
but get a little more than you need,
if you know what i mean

batsbrew
i like, and use, hafler amps.

 
And, if you are the curious type there are some great modifications out there... never going to sound like a Bryston, but you can make them sound even better than they do stock.
 

batsbrew
don't get more than you need..
but get a little more than you need,
if you know what i mean

Yup - always get just a wee bit more than you need. My basic, never violate it, rule of thumb is 20% more power, which works out to a paltry 1.5 dB. In reality I like to shoot for about 3 dB headroom above the loudspeaker rating.

batsbrew
don't get more than you need..
but get a little more than you need,
if you know what i mean

 
That's why the Yamaha P2100 was perfect @ 125 Watts and the NMS10's are 100 watts. 
 
I finding the specs on PA type power amps are not that great. And they are all overpowered @ generally 350 Watts. 
 
Then all the audiophile systems are like $$$$. 
 
I'm telling you,  the powered speakers are looking more and more like the best bet. 
I'm looking at spending $700 on a proper power amp then I might as well just get the HS8's. 
I'll just put the NMS10's in archival storage and let my grand kids find them when I croak. They'll be worth gold 30 years from now I bet.. 

 
Personally, since I couldn't afford both high quality monitors and high quality hi-fi amp/speakers, I'd go with the latter since I listen much more than I mix.  I've never been convinced of the argument that hi-fi sounds too good to be useful for mixing, where you want sterile, neutral, harsh -  but predictable.  I'd much rather learn to translate the sound of great hi-fi speakers to a more general purpose sound - while enjoying everyday great sound reproduction - than translate/suffer recommended monitors that can't be used for anythings else.  You can be sure that the amp in powered monitors is about as cheap as it gets.