Different price classes - Audiolab 9000A costs roughly 3x what Audiolab 7000A 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 | B | Audiolab 9000A has more power - 100W against 70W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.5dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Audiolab 7000A the better fit for a small room, and Audiolab 9000A for 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 | evenly matched | Both behave much the same into 4 ohms - output increases strongly (110W and 160W). |
| Noise floor | evenly matched | Much the same signal-to-noise ratio (110dB vs 110dB). |
| 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 (3). |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Price | A | Audiolab 7000A costs less - $999 against $2,999 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Audiolab 7000A is the cheaper watt - about $14 per watt against $30. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Audiolab 7000A B Audiolab 9000A
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?
Neither runs away with it - they trade advantages. Let the "depends" rows and the speakers you already own settle it. Think about the whole system: the roughly $2,000 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.