Siblings in Marantz's Model range, so they share a design and a house sound. It comes down to power, features and price.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | evenly matched | Effectively the same output - 70W against 60W into 8 ohms is under 1dB, which is not an audible difference in loudness. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Marantz Model 40n 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 (100W and 80W). |
| Noise floor | B | Marantz Model 60n is the quieter design on paper - 113dB against 106dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | evenly matched | Both have a DAC on board with much the same capability. |
| Streaming | evenly matched | The same streaming platforms and services on both. |
| Analogue inputs | evenly matched | The same number of line-level inputs (3). |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Price | B | Marantz Model 60n costs less - $1,600 against $2,499 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Marantz Model 60n is the cheaper watt - about $27 per watt against $36. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Marantz Model 40n 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 60n is the easier recommendation: it leads on most of the measured areas and costs less. Take Marantz Model 40n if one of the "depends" rows above describes your system. Think about the whole system: the roughly $899 saved by taking the cheaper one would buy better speakers or a subwoofer, and either 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 interface feels 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.