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 |
|---|
| Noise floor | A | Marantz MCR 60n is the quieter design on paper - 90dB against 76dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board, but only Marantz MCR 60n handles DSD. |
| Streaming | A | Only Marantz MCR 60n has AirPlay 2, Roon and HEOS. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Audiolab 6000A takes more analogue sources - 4 against 1. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Built-in sources | depends | Marantz MCR 60n has a CD player built in. That is one less box if you still play discs or listen to radio, and dead weight if you do not. |
| Shelf space | depends | Marantz MCR 60n takes up about 47% less shelf area (845cm² against 1605cm²), and it is 57mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Audiolab 6000A costs less - $899 against $1,000 at list. |
A Marantz MCR 60n B Audiolab 6000A
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?
The usual trade-off: Marantz MCR 60n measures better, Audiolab 6000A costs about 10% less. With most speakers in most rooms that gap is smaller in practice than it looks here.
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.