The old Trace stuff is excellent. I use a the carpet covered GP7 series amps. Bought a 7210 300w combo brand new in 2000 from Flying Pig. Still using it to this day. The combo alone has more than enough poke to cover most medium to large gigs. Never had a reliability issue. Apart from Trace, the only other amps I've touched are Ampeg (V4B original USA made one, SVT3 Pro, SVT410HLF, SVT410HE and SVT15E), and I've ended up selling all of them and gone back to the Trace. The Ampeg stuff made you sound like everyone else with an Ampeg, whereas I feel the Trace stuff is transparent, let's you sound like you.
Not only that, all the old stuff is fitted with original UK made Celestions, which sound great in my opinion. Better than US sounding Eminence speakers.
Yes, the carpet stuffs enclosures are made out of MDF, making it very heavy, but after using birch ply cabs, I actually think MDF sounds better. You get the pure sound of the speakers, whereas I found Birch Ply can sound 'boxy'.
All the old Traces power ratings were labelled up much more honestly as well. Like my 7210 combo its labelled as 300w and it is in its stand alone condition running at 8ohms, it then puts out 580w when another 8ohm cab is added, making it run at 4ohms. Not like 'all' other companies that state its a 500w amp, but only when you run it at 4ohms...
The 150w ones run at 280w when run at 4ohms. My advice would be to go for a 300w Trace, having used a 150w one myself at a couple of gigs, I found it had to cranked quite high to keep up with the band, making for not a lot of headroom. I was also running it at 4ohms at the time.
You won't go wrong with the old Trace Elliot gear. I've heard people having more problems with the new Peavey stuff than the old.