Different price classes - Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 costs roughly 1.6x what Advance Paris A12 APEX does. Expect it to lead on paper; the question is whether you will hear the difference through the speakers you own.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | evenly matched | Effectively the same output - 185W against 180W into 8 ohms is under 1dB, which is not an audible difference in loudness. |
| Grip on hard loads | evenly matched | Both behave much the same into 4 ohms - output increases strongly (276W and 272W). |
| Noise floor | evenly matched | Much the same signal-to-noise ratio (105dB vs 104dB). |
| Built-in DAC | B | Advance Paris A12 APEX has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Room correction | A | Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 has room correction. In an awkward room that does more for the sound than any other difference on this page. |
| Price | B | Advance Paris A12 APEX costs less - $4,999 against $7,999 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Advance Paris A12 APEX is the cheaper watt - about $28 per watt against $43. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 B Advance Paris A12 APEX
depends neither is better in the abstract - it turns on your room, your system or how you will use them. Only specs published for both amplifiers are judged; anything missing on either side is left out rather than guessed.
Which should you choose?
Advance Paris A12 APEX has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. If you already own a DAC or a streamer, the built-in one is money you are paying twice for, and Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 becomes the more rational buy. Think about the whole system: the roughly $3,000 saved by taking the cheaper one would buy better speakers or a subwoofer, which does more for the sound than the difference between two competent amplifiers.
What a spec sheet cannot show: how either sounds with your speakers, how the controls feel day to day, and what the app is like to live with - which is where most all-in-one amplifiers are actually won or lost. Power figures are the manufacturers' own and are not measured to a common standard, so treat small differences as noise. If you can hear both, that will tell you more than any row above.