Quick Summary
Audiolab has announced two new components in its flagship 9000 Series: the Audiolab 9000Q pre-amp, and the 9000P power amp.
Priced from £1,099, the separates will be available from December.
Audiolab makes some breathtakingly beautiful Hi-Fi hardware, and it's just launched two new members of its flagship 9000 Series.
The 9000Q preamplifier and 9000P power amplifier sit alongside the award-winning 9000N network streamer, 9000CDT CD transport and media player, and the 9000A integrated amplifier. They share the series' stunning looks, but of course, it's how they sound that really matters.
According to Audiolab, these new products are "the epitome of affordable high-end audio".
Audiolab 9000Q and 9000P: key features and pricing
The 9000Q pre-amp comes with two rotary controls and a 4.3-inch colour display to give you information about volume level, input selection, format data and so on. It also gives you access to advanced features, such as digital upsampling.
The new bass and treble controls are analogue and can be assigned different settings for different input sources, and there's an appealing VU-style meter to show decibel levels in real time.
The 9000Q comes with its own built-in Sabre ES9038PRO DAC and there are USB-B, four S/PDIF digital inputs (two coax and two optical), three stereo RCA, and one balanced XLR. You also get a phono input for your turntable.
There's Bluetooth 5 too, with support for aptX HD and LDAC.
There's some serious Hi-Res Audio support here as well: PCM to 32-bit/768kHz and DSD to 22.5MHz (DSD512). All the key Hi-Res and lossless formats are supported, including FLAC, ALAC, AIFF and WAV, plus compressed legacy formats.
Full MQA decoding is included too, and the preamp is certified to work seamlessly in a Roon audio environment.
The 9000P isn't quite as beautiful to look at, but it's a seriously powerful amplifier, with dual-mono topology, separate power supplies for the left and right channels and a rating of 100W per channel into 8 ohms.
There's sophisticated mains filtering built-in and, according to Audiolab, it delivers "wide ranging, free breathing dynamics" all the while retaining a "vice-like grip" on the music.
The 9000Q pre-amp and 9000P power amp will be available from December 2024 from Audiolab UK.
The 9000Q has an RRP of £1,499 ($1,885 / about AU$3,643) and the 9000P is £1,099 ($1,381 / about AU$2,125). The pair can be bought together for £2,499 ($3,140 / about AU$4,829).
