These are not the same size of amplifier: Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated has roughly 2.5x the power of Audiolab 6000A. That is about 4dB, so it is a question of room size and how hard your speakers are to drive, not of one being the better amplifier.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | B | Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated has more power - 125W against 50W into 8 ohms. That is about 4dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Audiolab 6000A the better fit for desk or near-field listening and a small room, and Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated for a mid-size room, a large room and a very large room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Grip on hard loads | A | Audiolab 6000A holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output increases strongly to 75W, where the other barely increases. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | B | Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated is the quieter design on paper - 100dB against 76dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | evenly matched | Both have a DAC on board with much the same capability. |
| Analogue inputs | evenly matched | The same number of line-level inputs (4). |
| Room to grow | A | Only Audiolab 6000A offers a pre-out/main-in loop - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Audiolab 6000A is Class A/B and Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated is Class D. Class A/B runs warm and is the long-established mainstream choice; Class D runs cool and draws almost nothing at idle. Modern examples of both measure well - judge by the rest of the page. |
| Shelf space | depends | Audiolab 6000A takes up about 14% less shelf area (1605cm² against 1870cm²), and it is 67mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | A | Audiolab 6000A costs less - $899 against $1,399 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated is the cheaper watt - about $11 per watt against $18. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Audiolab 6000A B Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated
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?
Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated is ahead, but on only 1 of the measured areas, and it costs about 56% more. That is a lot of money for a narrow margin - Audiolab 6000A is the sensible buy unless a specific feature above decides it for you. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - Audiolab 6000A is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. Start with the room. In a large or open-plan room, or with speakers that are hard to drive - low sensitivity, or an impedance that dips - Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 50 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 75 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated poorly for near-field use for exactly that reason.
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.