Siblings in Denon's PMA range, so they share a design and a house sound. It comes down to power, features and price.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | A | Denon PMA-1600NE has more power - 70W against 45W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.9dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Denon PMA-1600NE the better fit for a mid-size room, a large room and a very large room, and Denon PMA-600NE for desk or near-field listening and a small room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Noise floor | A | Denon PMA-1600NE is the quieter design on paper - 108dB against 105dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board. Denon PMA-1600NE goes higher - 384kHz against 192kHz. Very few recordings exist above 192kHz, so treat this as headroom, not as sound quality. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Denon PMA-600NE takes more analogue sources - 4 against 3. |
| Room to grow | B | Only Denon PMA-600NE offers preamp outputs - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Shelf space | depends | Denon PMA-600NE takes up about 28% less shelf area (1405cm² against 1949cm²), and it is 125mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Denon PMA-600NE costs less - $499 against $2,099 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Denon PMA-600NE is the cheaper watt - about $11 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 Denon PMA-1600NE B Denon PMA-600NE
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 $1,600 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.