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 | Audiolab 9000A has more power - 100W against 80W into 8 ohms. That is about 1dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier the better fit for a small room, and Audiolab 9000A for 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 | evenly matched | Both behave much the same into 4 ohms - output increases strongly (130W and 160W). |
| Noise floor | B | Audiolab 9000A is the quieter design on paper - 110dB against 98dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Both decode on board, but only Audiolab 9000A handles DSD. |
| Streaming | A | Only Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has AirPlay 2, Roon and BluOS. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Audiolab 9000A takes more analogue sources - 3 against 2. |
| Room to grow | B | Only Audiolab 9000A offers a pre-out/main-in loop - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Price | B | Audiolab 9000A costs less - $2,999 against $3,199 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Audiolab 9000A is the cheaper watt - about $30 per watt against $40. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier B Audiolab 9000A
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?
Audiolab 9000A has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is.
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.