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 | A | Marantz MODEL M1 has more power - 100W against 60W into 8 ohms. That is about 2.2dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Marantz MODEL M1 the better fit for a mid-size room, a large room and a very large room, and Marantz Model 60n for desk or near-field listening and a small 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 modestly (125W and 80W). |
| Built-in DAC | evenly matched | Both have a DAC on board with much the same capability. |
| Streaming | B | Only Marantz Model 60n has Qobuz and Apple Music. |
| Analogue inputs | evenly matched | The same number of line-level inputs (3). |
| Phono stage | depends | Marantz Model 60n has a built-in phono stage (MM) and Marantz MODEL M1 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 | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Marantz MODEL M1 is Class D and Marantz Model 60n is Class A/B. Class D runs cool and draws almost nothing at idle; Class A/B runs warm and is the long-established mainstream choice. Modern examples of both measure well - judge by the rest of the page. |
| Shelf space | depends | Marantz MODEL M1 takes up about 71% less shelf area (552cm² against 1912cm²), and it is 179mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | A | Marantz MODEL M1 costs less - $1,000 against $1,600 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Marantz MODEL M1 is the cheaper watt - about $10 per watt against $27. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Marantz MODEL M1 B Marantz Model 60n
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?
Marantz MODEL M1 has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. 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 - Marantz MODEL M1 has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 60 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 40 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate Marantz MODEL M1 poorly for near-field use for exactly that reason. If you play records, Marantz Model 60n 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.