Parasound A21 vs Bryston 4bsst 2

i don't know anything about the Bryston, but my A21 is neutral, maybe a touch toward the warm side. It's stays in class A for the first 10 watts, and I probably stay within that 10 watts most of the time, running Paradigm Signature S6 from a Parasound p7 in 2 channel mode.

For me, interconnect and speaker cables made a huge improvement in the soundstage. Not sure what the OP has for gear or cables, but by saving some on the A21, I'd suggest getting some good cables, I've purchased from Audio Advisor and they are pretty knowledgeable.

Ricred1, I take it you have the Aerial 7T's already? They are not cheap! A more difficult load with a minimum resistance of 3 ohms. As others have said, speaker amp synergy will be important, hopefully you can get the amp on a 30 day trial as many of the internet shops offer.

As for cables, they really are system dependant, but I really am taken with solid core conductor based cables. Morrow Audio makes a unique version, and Audioquest is another such option. Silver conductors can also be excellent for soundstage, but can be more forward sounding. There are some good cable threads in the cable section to get some ideas.

The pre-with-a-dac category is fairly new I think, Wyred 4 Sound makes the mPre, and I think Peachtree Audio offers something, but they don't have a lot of inputs.

A .5 decibel is not detectible above 40-50 db, sometimes we imagine we can hear differences because the meter says so.

Interesting, I've always been curious about Peachtree. Yeah, the A21 is kind of a giant killer and i've read many good things about it being pared with the P5. I've got the P7 myself, you just can't go wrong with Parasound for the money.