One is a streaming all-in-one and the other is an amplifier. Judge them on how many boxes you want and what you already own, not on the spec sheet alone.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | evenly matched | Effectively the same output - 50W against 50W 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 (75W and 75W). |
| Noise floor | evenly matched | Much the same signal-to-noise ratio (76dB vs 76dB). |
| Built-in DAC | evenly matched | Both have a DAC on board with much the same capability. |
| Streaming | evenly matched | Only Audiolab 6000A Play has DTS Play-Fi. Neither list is longer in a way that matters - check the one service you actually pay for. |
| Analogue inputs | evenly matched | The same number of line-level inputs (4). |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Price | A | Audiolab 6000A costs less - $899 against $1,700 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Audiolab 6000A is the cheaper watt - about $18 per watt against $34. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Audiolab 6000A B Audiolab 6000A Play
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?
Audiolab 6000A has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. Think about the whole system: the roughly $801 saved by taking the cheaper one would buy better speakers or a subwoofer, and either 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 interface feels 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.