Plinius SA301 Or Bryston 4bsst2?

Plinius SB301 is in a different league from bryston 4bsst2.
It will be better for you to compare Plinius SB301 with bryston 14bsst2.

That's what I figured. The 4BSST or SST2 is not the most transparent or dynamic amp out there.

I would still vote plinius for its midrange/bass quality. In addition reliability of plinius is outstanding. I wish I could afford their plinius Ref SA amplifier.

Ok, cool, sounds good regarding the reliability. Why, what is the price of the Ref SA?

Something that hasn't been mentioned but should be considered is that the Plinius SB-301 has unusually high gain, the specs being 32 db unbalanced and 38 db balanced. So with that amp you would find yourself using the volume control on your preamp at significantly lower settings than with most other amps, including the 4BSST2. Especially if you are planning to go with a balanced connection to the preamp.

That may be good, bad, or neither depending on the output level of your source(s), the gain of your preamp, and the sensitivity of the speaker (the latter being moderate, at 88 db/2.83 volts/1 meter per Stereophile's measurements, corresponding to 85 db/1 watt/1 meter given its 4 ohm nominal impedance). And possibly depending also on how well your volume control maintains resolution and channel balance in the lower part of its range.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

I've heard a Bryston 4B SST driving a Thiel 2.3 and i'm 99%+ sure it was a very poor match!

Dave_72 - Plinius SA-Reference Power Amplifier, MSRP is $20,900US

Yeah a plinius with a good passive pre amp might
be the ticket. I just bought a Plinius 100 mrk
III used and I will be running it in balanced
mode through an adcom 750 in passive mode. The
adcom when reviewed by Wes Philips compared it
to a 6500 Mark Levenson pre amp. When in passive
mode it let's the signal go through unmolested.