Need recommendation for power amp under $250

Thanks for the recommendations.

Just to make sure I cover my bases, how do Carver, B&K, Adcom, Rotel, and NAD stack up? Is there a clearly higher quality make, or are they all 'vanilla'? It looks like I could pick up any one of those for under $200 used.

How does Dynaco measure up? There is a 200wpc recently listed on here for under $200...

Also, anyone heard of Sonance?

Actually... scratch the Sonance. The one I was looking at was actually a sub amp.

Well, Sonance is cheap... but I'm assuming sub-par to the others we have mentioned?

Thanks for the recommend.

This is a bit off topic, but... If I pick up an amp with independent volume controls, is there any need for a pre-amp if I only nave need for one input and a volume control... or is it better to set and leave the volume controls on the amp and use a pre-amp for regular level adjustments?

It just seems like in my case a pre-amp would be unnecessarily complicating the chain if I only need it for volume control...

Hey everyone. Thanks for the input.

I decided to go with a passive pre-amp (NHT PVC) and a Yamaha M-40.

The speakers I will be driving are Green Mountain Audio Continuum 1s.