5560, I'm a little embarrassed to realize that I didn't actually answer your question - after all those years of University I should know that the first rule is to READ THE QUESTION! Nonetheless, I'm glad that you found my response helpful. I would think that the SST-2 modifications would have the same sonic improvement across the Bryston line, but that remains to be heard. I really liked the 4B SST that I heard a couple of years ago and I would think it would now only be better.
Thanks for the advice on the Parasound Pre. I've read about them and would like to hear the combination. The problem I have is that I live at least a five hour drive from a decent audio shop (and they're across the border) and it gets hard to do home demos (or any demo) that way.
Drummermitchell, I completely believe that the Torus will make a huge difference. The improvement I experienced with a dedicated AC line was not subtle. I saw a Torus on the bench at Bryston and they strongly recommend them. Apparently, Plitron, the makers of the Torus also supply Bryston with their transformers so I would expect that there would be a nice synergy there. I'm keen to get my 240V service put in so that I can get the 240V version. Having two hot lines 180 degrees out of phase apparently cancels out all of the line noise and the massive transformer inside the Torus provides a large reservoir of electrons from which the amp can draw for its transients.
Interesting that you're also using Arcam. I have an AVR-200 that I started out with and still use to do my AV processing and to drive the centre channel. It sounds way better than it has any right to and I had considered the AV-8 in the past. But, I think that the SP-3 with its video-switching and processing capabilities would provide me with the best overall AV solution. Plus, I think it would sound very good, Brian and James at Bryston told me that it will have the same Pre-amp as the BP-26 and the same DAC as their stand-alone DAC. Also, it will have discrete power supplies for the digital, analog and video sections. Should be very nice.
