Thanks everyone for inputs
I learn a lot
so is not always about the weight
Excellent. In return for putting up with the ribbing here's more good solid info than you ever dreamed there was on this subject. Or so I humbly submit, etc, etc.
Mass matters. Don't take my word for it. Put a phone book, dive weight, bag of sugar, anything heavy on top of a CD player, DAC, preamp, whatever. You will hear a difference. Or in case you don't, even better, you can now save yourself a ton of time and money from now on just buy cheap and good looking.
But probably you will notice the sound did change, the bass got fuller, and if it was something soft like the sugar then it also got fuller with warmth but if it was solid like a rock then it got deeper and tighter. And not just the bass but the midrange, and treble is more dynamic.
So mass does matter. Stiffness does matter. Damping matters. Just not at all in the way you were asking, which is why you got so much static. Of course weight does not matter, per se. To be totally honest nothing matters but how it sounds. Take any design, any technology, does not matter. There's tube amps that are tight and etched and grainy and there's solid state amps that are full and liquid and warm. None of these tech things you are so focused on means anything. Only how it sounds. Go and listen. You will see.
I don’t really need more power than A21+ for my current set up just to cover future upgrade
No one needs more than about 30 to 60 tube watts, or about 100 solid state watts. No one. If you think you do all that means is you made a mistake somewhere. Most likely you got sucked into some hard to drive speakers. Happens a lot.
Number One with a bullet thing to keep asking yourself when shopping for amps: If the first watt isn't any good, why in the world would you want 200 more of them?
The preamp looks amazing though for 4K
If you say so. What looks amazing to me for $4k is the Raven integrated. For $4k you get a preamp, and amp, with all the power you need. 30W. PLUS with that you do not need another power cord, interconnect, fuse, cones, shelf, or any of the other stuff which if you cut corners on will insure you never, ever get the performance from that preamp and amp that you paid so dearly for.
My guess would be, just to give you some idea, you are looking at well over $10k in separates to match the performance you will hear with the Raven Nighthawk or Osprey. Well over.
