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 | B | Arcam A15 has more power - 80W against 50W into 8 ohms. That is about 2dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Denon PMA-900HNE the better fit for desk or near-field listening and a small room, and Arcam A15 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 | Denon PMA-900HNE holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output increases strongly to 85W, where the other increases strongly. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | evenly matched | Much the same signal-to-noise ratio (105dB vs 106dB). |
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board, but only Denon PMA-900HNE handles DSD. |
| Streaming | A | Only Denon PMA-900HNE has AirPlay 2, Roon and HEOS. |
| Analogue inputs | evenly matched | The same number of line-level inputs (3). |
| Room to grow | A | Only Denon PMA-900HNE offers a subwoofer output - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Price | A | Denon PMA-900HNE costs less - $949 against $999 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Arcam A15 is the cheaper watt - about $12 per watt against $19. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Denon PMA-900HNE B Arcam A15
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?
Denon PMA-900HNE 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 - Denon PMA-900HNE 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 - Arcam A15 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 30 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate Arcam A15 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.