Integrated amplifiers — Audiolab 6000A MkII

Audiolab introduced the 6000A MkII in April 2025 as the replacement for its 2018 6000A, pricing it at GBP 699 in either a silver or a black finish. The styling copies the earlier unit, keeping the OLED screen, the metal case and three rotary dials for source, mode and volume, so it still lines up visually with the 6000, 7000 and 9000 Series. Jan Ertner is credited with the amplifier topology. Changes over the original include an ES9038Q2M converter in place of the ES9018K2M, an HDMI ARC input, integrated mains filtering, an upgraded toroidal transformer with reworked supply circuitry and a refined moving-magnet phono stage.

Key specs that matter

The two channels are rated at 50 W into 8 ohm or 75 W into 4 ohm with THD below 1 %, and the output stage can supply up to 11 A, compared with 9 A in the first 6000A. Phono gain drops by one decibel to 54 dB while line gain remains at 8 dB, and the phono signal-to-noise figure rises to above 79 dB A-weighted from 76 dB. A line input needs 720 mV and presents 10 kohm, and the phono input needs 3.1 mV and loads cartridges with 47 kohm in parallel with 100 pF. Through the preamp, distortion is below 0.0004 % at 1 kHz and 2 V, frequency response holds within 0.1 dB across 20 Hz to 20 kHz and the output impedance is 120 ohm. The power amp section adds 29 dB of gain and keeps distortion under 0.003 % at 1 kHz with 50 W into 8 ohm.

Engineering and use context

A 200 VA toroidal transformer feeds four 15,000 uF reservoir capacitors, arranged as 30,000 uF on each rail, for the Class AB output stage built around Audiolab's Complementary Feedback circuit. The ESS chip resolves 32 bits, and S/PDIF sources at up to 192 kHz are converted with distortion under 0.001 %, signal-to-noise over 116 dB and a 2.05 Vrms full-scale level. A Class A active filter after the DAC was redesigned for the new chip, drawing on work done for the 7000A and 9000A. The phono section is a dedicated MM circuit with accurate RIAA equalisation. The remote is a universal Audiolab handset, so some of its buttons do nothing on this model.

Pairing

Digital sources connect through two coaxial inputs, two Toslink inputs, the HDMI ARC socket and a Bluetooth 5.1 receiver with aptX HD. Analogue sources use three RCA line inputs and the phono input, and a separate power amp input lets an AV processor drive the output stage in Pre-Power mode. Pre mode instead sends the 2.3 V preamp output to an external power amplifier. A 12 V trigger in and out handles switching, and the front panel carries a current-feedback headphone amplifier.

Alternatives

The Audiolab 9000A is a larger integrated amplifier from the 9000 Series with 100 W per channel into 8 ohm and a 320 VA transformer.