Parasound A21 vs Bryston 4bsst 2


I'm looking for any information regarding the Parasound A21 vs the Bryston 4bsst 2. The amp will be used to drive a pair of Aerial 7Ts. It's not about what's better, but what one represents the better value, considering the cost difference. In other words, for those who say get the Bryston, is it twice as good as the Parasound? My room is 20' x 26', I listen to contemporary Jazz, and my priorities are soundstaging, imaging(front to back placement), and as close to neutral as possible without brightness. Thanks in advanced for your opinions.
ricred1

Showing 4 responses by zkzpb8

Congrats on the Parasound - they make great sounding gear. I love Bryston, but for the money (unless you really want that warranty) they're going to sound exactly the same. Level match them within half a dB and they'll be indistinguishable.

I also agree about having a separate DAC from the Pre - much better options with separates...
"Let me see if I got this right; the Parasound is flat out better than the Bryston, and the Bryston is only good for the warranty but not sound quality?"

The point I was trying to make was that people (“professional” or otherwise) make amplifier comparisons that don't carry much weight... One must A/B two components that are perfectly level matched – tiny level differences make a big difference in sound – you will hear a difference in a component if one is louder than the other - it's just the way our ears work, but it's not necessarily the truth..

I'm not saying all gear sounds the same, but there's a lot of prose out there that is based on emotion and in unreliable test settings...

I'm a big Bryston fan – I've heard their amplifiers countless times in studios and would always recommend them. But when someone is concerned with cost, sometimes other options are better. In my experience, both amps will sonically provide Ricred1 with what he's looking for, and if budget is a concern, go for the less expensive one...

One other comment about Bryston – they claim that going up the product line will only provide you with more power – the sound is the same from model to model (unless you're running a lower powered model beyond it's intended abilities – thus the need to move to a more powerful model)...
Yeah Dave - I was the subject of a test recently, with two amps playing, one a .5 dB louder than the other. Needless to say that almost everyone liked the louder one (including me - I had all kinds of great things to say about it). It was pretty educational, to say the least...
Hey congrats on the Peachtree! Let us know how it works out.

BTW, For the test, I had no idea what or if there was a difference between the amplifiers. Listen to A, listen to B, if you hear a difference, which one do you like better... I only knew of the slight volume difference, after the fact...