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 - 100W against 100W into 8 ohms is under 1dB, which is not an audible difference in loudness. |
| Grip on hard loads | A | Audiolab 9000A holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output increases strongly to 160W, where the other barely increases. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | A | Audiolab 9000A is the quieter design on paper - 110dB against 90dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board, but only Audiolab 9000A handles DSD. |
| Streaming | B | Only NAD Masters Series M10 V2 has AirPlay 2, Roon and BluOS. |
| Analogue inputs | A | Audiolab 9000A takes more analogue sources - 3 against 2. |
| Phono stage | depends | Audiolab 9000A has a built-in phono stage (MM) and NAD Masters Series M10 V2 does not. Decisive if you own a turntable, completely irrelevant if you do not - and an outboard phono stage is easy to add later either way. |
| Room to grow | A | Only Audiolab 9000A offers a pre-out/main-in loop - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Headphones | depends | Only Audiolab 9000A has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Audiolab 9000A is Class A/B and NAD Masters Series M10 V2 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 | NAD Masters Series M10 V2 takes up about 60% less shelf area (606cm² against 1518cm²), and it is 64mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | evenly matched | Priced within a few per cent of each other. |
A Audiolab 9000A B NAD Masters Series M10 V2
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 9000A has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - Audiolab 9000A is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. If you play records, Audiolab 9000A saves you buying a phono stage; if you do not, ignore that row entirely.
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.