A valve amplifier against a solid-state one. They are not really rivals: they differ in character, in what they will drive and in what owning them involves, so start there rather than with the watts.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | B | Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 has more power - 185W against 125W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.7dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Grip on hard loads | A | Mark Levinson No.5805 holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output nearly doubles to 250W, where the other increases modestly. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | evenly matched | Much the same signal-to-noise ratio (103dB vs 105dB). |
| Built-in DAC | A | Mark Levinson No.5805 has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Room to grow | B | Only Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 offers a pre-out/main-in loop - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Amplifier type | depends | Mark Levinson No.5805 is Solid State and Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 is Hybrid. Valve designs are usually warmer and softer at the limits and need their tubes replaced eventually; solid state is the lower-maintenance choice. This is a taste and ownership decision, not a quality one. |
| Price | B | Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 costs less - $7,999 against $10,500 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 is the cheaper watt - about $43 per watt against $84. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Mark Levinson No.5805 B Advance Paris NOVA A-i190
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?
Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 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 - Mark Levinson No.5805 is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. If you already own a DAC or a streamer, the built-in one is money you are paying twice for, and Advance Paris NOVA A-i190 becomes the more rational buy.
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.