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 | Marantz Model 40n has more power - 70W against 50W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.5dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate PS Audio Sprout100 the better fit for desk or near-field listening and a small room, and Marantz Model 40n 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 | PS Audio Sprout100 holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output nearly doubles to 100W, where the other increases modestly. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | B | Marantz Model 40n is the quieter design on paper - 106dB against 100dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board. PS Audio Sprout100 goes higher - 384kHz against 192kHz. Very few recordings exist above 192kHz, so treat this as headroom, not as sound quality. |
| Streaming | B | Only Marantz Model 40n has AirPlay 2, Roon and HEOS. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Marantz Model 40n takes more analogue sources - 3 against 2. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Amplifier class | depends | PS Audio Sprout100 is Class D and Marantz Model 40n 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 | PS Audio Sprout100 takes up about 85% less shelf area (329cm² against 2126cm²), and it is 273mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | A | PS Audio Sprout100 costs less - $799 against $2,499 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | PS Audio Sprout100 is the cheaper watt - about $16 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 PS Audio Sprout100 B Marantz Model 40n
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 40n is ahead, but on only 1 of the measured areas, and it costs about 3.1x the price. That is a lot of money for a narrow margin - PS Audio Sprout100 is the sensible buy unless a specific feature above decides it for you. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - PS Audio Sprout100 is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. Think about the whole system: the roughly $1,700 saved by taking the cheaper one would buy better speakers or a subwoofer, which 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 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.