With the introduction of the new Audiolab 9000a and 9000cdt, it was only a matter of time before a Hi Res Streamer completed the range. After 3 years of extensive development, enter the 9000n.
Powered by Lumin, the 9000n is a premium streamer in the 9000 series chassis, equipped with a ESS9038Pro DAC and a colour screen to show all your track info and album artwork, it has the hallmarks of another award winning Audiolab streamer.
Available in Silver or Black.
Ever since the much-admired M-DAC launched more than a decade ago, Audiolab has been famed for the performance of its DAC circuitry. The 9000N incorporates the ES9038PRO – an eight-channel DAC chip representing the pinnacle of ESS Technology’s current Sabre range. This is accompanied by proprietary circuitry to make the most of the chip’s HyperStream II architecture and Time Domain Jitter Eliminator technology for unprecedented dynamic range and ultra-low distortion.
No company knows more about making the most of Sabre DAC technology than Audiolab, having worked with it for years through several product generations. Although consistently technically excellent, these DAC chips are also challenging to implement to maximum effect and must be integrated into a product’s circuit design with care to extract their full sonic potential. The post-DAC active filter is a critical element, and Audiolab has developed a new circuit that is perfectly tailored to make the most of the ES9038PRO.
The 9000N also delivers full decoding of , the hi-res streaming technology. This means that the complete ‘three unfold’ decoding process is performed internally, as opposed to just the final unfold in the manner of an MQA ‘renderer’, making the 9000A an excellent amplifier for subscribers to Tidal’s ‘HiFi Plus’ tier where Tidal Masters (MQA) content can be found. It is officially Roon Tested, too, ensuring it works seamlessly in a Roon audio environment.
The format of the 9000N reflects the crisp elegance of the 9000A and matching CDT. Equipped with rotary controls and an absence of buttons (except for the power switch), the 9000N also implements the 4.3in colour screen, as found in the rest of the series – the perfect window for presentation for your digital music files… including full-colour album artwork!
The screen displays a variety of information in a more visually appealing way than most other streaming devices, many of which have traditionally relied upon the accompanying app for operational feedback and user control and interface. The 9000N’s display offers full menu controls, an array of options, and user settings, including multi-language selection and general display options.
Most impressively, the 9000N display presents details of format data, playback information and, as mentioned above, full-colour album artwork display. Album artwork is visible in the default playback screen but can also be expanded for an artwork-emphasised playback screen. The display can even be set to display a VU meter in ‘analogue’ or ‘digital’ form, showing real-time decibel levels for the left and right channels – a satisfying graphical representation of the music as it plays. For a more minimalistic option, the display can be dimmed or turned off completely, as the user prefers.
Proudly developed to combine an incredibly capable and equally stable streaming platform with audiolab’s digital know-how, world-beating DAC implementation and signal flow, and the intuitive 9000 series general user interface, for the ultimate streaming solution.
The audiolab 9000N app offers immediate access to Qobuz and Tidal, with full access to hi-res and MQA content, as well as Spotify, TuneIn internet radio and UPnP music server systems and digital audio files stored on USB HDD devices.
The app offers intelligent search functionality and full access to, control of and even the creation of user-defined playlists, folders and album grouping functions. File information, track detail and app-in-app search, select, and compilation functions are easily accessible. Qobuz and Tidal users will be pleased to know that, unlike some other apps and platforms, the hi-res and Master Quality Authenticated (MQA) tracks can be easily identified with icons within the app itself, with no need to hop between the service and device apps to find such content.
Unlike comparable technology from other manufacturers, the 9000N offers wireless playback over a Wi-Fi connection, not solely dependent on the albeit sometimes preferable wired /ethernet connection. This, along with the full album artwork and ESS9038Pro DAC chipset integration, represents several advanced features for the 9000N to boast.
Yet, it is also not limited to the audiolab 9000N app; the 9000N also offers playback via Airplay II as well as Tidal Connect and Spotify Connect for those who prefer the proprietary streaming service app.
ESS Sabre ES9038Pro 32bit DAC
Quad Arm® Cortex®-A53 core,1.8GHz per Core
Audiolab 9000N Streaming technology (IEEE 802.11 a / b / g / n / ac,2.4/5GHz)
UPnP AV protocol with audio streaming extension (Open Home)
Built-in Certified MQA Full decoder (via streaming & PC USB)
Native support for Spotify Connect, TIDAL Connect, MQA, Qobuz and TuneIn Radio
Roon Ready
Gapless Playback
High-resolution album artwork display
USB storage / flash drive / USB hard disk (Single-partition FAT32, exFAT and NTFS) playback
4.3" (800 x 480px) IPS LCD screen
iOS (11.0 or later) / Android (Android 4.0 or later) required for App control
1 x Network Streaming
1 x PC USB (USB Type-B)
1 x Ethernet 10/100 / 1000 Base-T Ethernet
1 x 12V Trigger
1 x RCA (pair)
1 x XLR (pair)
1 x Optical
1 x Coaxial
1 x 12V Trigger (Link)
DSD Lossless: DSF (DSD), DIFF (DSD), DoP (DSD)
PCM Lossless: FLAC, Apple Lossless (ALAC), WAV, AIFF
Compressed (lossy) Audio: MP3 MQA
PCM: 44.1kHz-768kHz (705.6kHz / 768kHz Fixed-point supported via Audiolab 9000N App streaming)
DSD: DSD64, DSD128, DSD256, DSD512 (Native)
