New Parasound A21 VS Mark Levinson #23

Which B&W 803 do you have? 803 D2 or the latest 803 D3?

Mines is 803 Nautilus

While I agree with the above about the Parasound A21, if the Levinson has had the caps replaced and completely serviced within the past few years, it is hands down a better sounding amp.

I was a Levinson dealer for many years and have owned a bunch of their equipment. I wasn't ever a Parasound dealer, but have owned a lot of their product also, including the A21.

Once you hear a properly working Levinson amp, it's hard to get it out of your head.  They are indeed quite nice, but I agree, that they have their own sonic signature, (just like everything else).

Without knowing the provenance of the Levinson, the A21 is a safer bet. 

Which B&W 803 do you have? 803 D2 or the latest 803 D3?

ask17 - I'm not sure who you're asking the question to.  Your 803S is the last of the original Nautilaus series before B&W moved to the diamond tweeter.  If I remember right, the "S" series had a better aluminum tweeter where B&W was able to raise the resonance breakup to something like 28khz.  I used to have the B&W D2 series and now have the D3 series.  I'm driving them with fuse-upgraded JC1 and A21 amplifiers.

If you go the A21 route I would wait on the fuses to get acquainted with the stock sound and then later on add the fuses. Just my 2 cents. 

Oopps.....sorry didn’t see that the OP has stated the 803S. The older B&W S models before using the diamond tweeters totally have different sound profile than the newer models. I myself never liked the kevlar midrange drivers too as they distort and colored the sound and did not sound natural or organic to me. I never liked B&W until the newer D3 series with a new continuum midrange drivers instead of kevlars. B&W was never my go to choice for music anyway but they are great for HT and is one of my favorite HT speaker system. Except the newer 800 D3 models are quite good for music but still not my number 1 preference for music.