Amplifier Upgrade Decision

Thanks for your feedback bond. How does support/servicing work for Japanese components?

George- Thanks. Given that I have Parasound HaloJC-2, JC-1 would be a smooth transition. I am very familiar with Parasound signature sound and it is good, However I have heard Plinius SA103 at a local dealer's store and it sounds really good. I haven't heard Pass Labs as yet but read rave reviews about this brand.
So I was hoping to hear from folks driving Aerials Model 7T with Plinius/Pass Labs amplifiers.  
Also, I wanted to hear what folks think about mono-blocks over a stereo amplifier in the price range that I mentioned above. A stereo amplifier brings the advantage of managing less no of chassis, power cables etc and mono-blocks are supposed to provide with better channel separation, less noise, separate power supply, etc. But I am not sure how is that delta going to result into audible sound improvement. Any feedback on this point would be very much appreciated.

Thank you guys for your feedback. Very helpful indeed. I think Halo JC-2 is very good pre-amplifier at that price point, at-lease it blended really well in my system. Previously I was using P-7 to drive Halo A-21 but upgrading the pre-amplifier to Halo JC-2 brought a huge improvement all over the audio domain. The most notable factor was the quality of bass coming out of Halo A-21 in this combination. 
I was initially thinking of getting a pair of Halo JC-1s because it is a very good amplifier and would make this transition very smooth for me. However I am willing to give Pass/Plinius a try because of the reasons that auxinput mentioned above. I am really curious to find out what this more musical/sweet (when using a pure Class A amplifier) means from a sound perspective. Any feedback on this would be very much appreciated.
Also any opinion on using a set of mono-blocks over a stereo amplifier? In theory the mono-blocks win but I wanted to hear from folks who have used both and have an opinion on this item.
 

Folks, Thanks for chiming in... A few comments from my side.

Power requirement, as pointed out by Al, George and others, is very important for me because this amplifier would be used for both 2 channel and HT applications. Although I am a music person, HT need for the rest of my family could not be compromised. I selected Pass Labs XA60.8 because
1. Mike Kelly told me a number of times that Model 7T is relatively an easy load for any amplifier
2. Pass Labs product team confirmed that this unit will be more than capable of driving Model 7T in my room with a plenty of headroom in reserve to support dynamic range

Is there anybody in this group driving Aerial Model 7T with a Pass Lab amplifier XA-60.8?

@ricred- Do you still have Model 7T speakers? If yes, what are you currently using to drive it?

It sounds like Plinius in stereo mode will have double the Class-A power than the Pass Lab amplifier. If the stereo sound output of Plinius is equivalent to Pass Labs mono blocks then that might be a good choice for me. 
Again any feedback on this topic would be appreciated.

Thank you very much for all of your comments suggestions. 
@darcman- The DAC suggestion is indeed interesting and I have that in my upgrade path as well. I could upgrade either source or amplifier at a time given the budget constraint and I decided on amplifier based on my personal choice. Ideally I should audition each upgrade separately and then decide but that would involve spending a lot of time which I might not be able to spend right now. However in the end I need both a quality source and an amplifier...
I am also interested to find out from the group whether 60W Class A power (mono-blocks) would have enough juice to drive my Aerials 7T, which drop down to 3 Ohms, in my 16' X 12' room. If not how much Class A power (min) I should look for to make this transition smooth? Any feedback on this would be highly appreciated.

@hddg- I completely agree with the power criteria and it's importance that you have brought up... Initially I thought 60W would be too less for driving the Aerials but Pass Labs product team confirmed that I would be fine with it in my relatively small room 16' X 12' room, specially with Class A power. I am trying to find out how much Class A power I need in my room to drive the Aerials w/o loosing dynamics and bass. Is there a way to find that out before buying the amplifier?
Thanks

@markmendenhall Thanks for your feedback. Glad to hear that you like Halo JC-2 pre-amplifier which in my opinion is a great product at that price point. Just curious to find out how does Pass Labs 150.8, which is less powerful that Halo A-21, compare with Halo A-21.
Now coming back to pure Class A power it seems like you have to really spend a fortune to reach to the level of 150W or 250W and even then you might not get it because almost all Class-A amplifiers leave Class A domain beyond a threshold. So it is unclear to me why audiophiles spend so much  on Pure Class A design instead of a Class A/B design. I know everything in audio is system/environment/user dependent but is there a thumb rule of X Watt of pure Class A which would be good enough for most of the users in a small/medium room under a regular listening environment?

@david_ten: I haven't made my final decision yet, got side tracked by a room acoustic issue which was more urgent to address. I might go for  Pass Lab amplifier (mono blocks) as soon as I can. 

@markmendenhalI,
The components that you added are all very good in my opinion and I am sure that you are very happy with this set of upgraded components.
I didn't go for a new amplifier in 2017 because of some other priorities but I have made some significant changes this year to my 2 channel audio system. First I got a Bricasti DAC/Source controller M12 to replace Oppo UDP-205 which replaced Oppo BDP- 95 a year or two back. This also replaced Parasound pre-amplifier Halo JC2 BP.
Then I added a Bricasti amplifier M25 (Dual Mono design) to replace Parasound Halo A21+.
I have auditioned following three amplifiers when selecting the Bricasti unit.
1. Gato PWR-222 mono blocks 
2. Parasound  Halo JC1+ mono blocks 
3. Luxman M900u 
I found the Bricasti unit to be the fastest, clean and detailed compared to the above list of amplifiers and the combination Bricasti M12 and M25 was the smoothest.
Now I am looking out for a good power conditioner for my system. I would also be putting up following components for sale shortly 
1. Oppo BDP- 95
2. Parasound - Halo JC2 BP
3. Parasound - Halo A21+
4. Nordost Heimdall 2 Speaker cable 2M
There is another thing I wanted to mention here. Very recently I tried out a speaker cable and a Digital- Coaxial cable (Signature Series) from the Canadian company Audio Sensibility and very pleasantly surprised with its performance. I had initially very low expectation of this Audio Sensibility cables, specifically the speaker cable. But when I compared it with my Nordost Heimdall 2 speaker cable I found it to be significantly outperforming the Nordost cable. So much so I am selling the Nordost speaker cable. The Audio Sensibility digital cable is also very good. I am going to try their Power cable and Interconnect cable down the line and compare it against Nordost Heimdall 2 and Frey 2 cables. 
Thanks