Preamp for Parasound A21?

No Way...recent pic's I have seen of the new P-5 on Google images shows a larger unit than the P-7. It has more height. It has control knobs on the front instead of push buttons. Previously owning three Parasound Preamps including the previous flagship, the PLD-2000, I would never own a Parasound preamp again. John Curl has always designed better amplifiers than Preamps. The first time I saw the interior of the Wyred4Sound STP-SE was like looking under the hood of a Bentley. I asked myself how the
hell can this Preamp cost $2K with the remarkable boardwork
and very high quality parts and the largest power supply of any Preamp I have ever seen in twenty years costing $10K
or below? The designer and owner of Wyred4Sound, EJ Sarmento has a degree in micro electronics and is a circuit engineer. He really knows his stuff.

The Parasound P5 will be about 950, not 1400. It sounds like you have your preference for preamps, but that doesn't mean that audio legend John Curl doesn't know how to design good ones, or that he has a hand in the P5 for that matter.

At any rate, it's worth checking out if it meets one's time frame and criteria. It meets mine, I'm hoping to pick one up at the end of summer and really like what my Halo A21 can do, a P5 could make real magic with it. Time will tell I guess. I had wanted the W4S pre, but it seems expensive for what you get.

a Jeff Rowland Capri preamp sounds wonderful pushing my A-21 along!

Used you should be able to snap one up just a tad over your 2K budget

Marantz AV8801?

Onkyo P-3000R. I would give it a try.

http://www.onkyousa.com/Products/model.php?m=P-3000R&class=Reference

Take care.