No single best amplifier here. What decides it is what you have to drive, what you need to plug in, and how much of the system you want in one box.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | B | Naim Nova PE has more power - 150W against 90W into 8 ohms. That is about 2.2dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Accuphase E-280 the better fit for desk or near-field listening, a small room and a mid-size room, and Naim Nova PE 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 | B | Naim Nova PE holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output increases strongly to 250W, where the other increases modestly. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Naim Nova PE has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Analogue inputs | A | Accuphase E-280 takes more analogue sources - 5 against 2. |
| Use with a TV | depends | Only Naim Nova PE has HDMI ARC, so the television can drive it directly and one remote controls the volume. If the system is for music only, this changes nothing. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Accuphase E-280 is Class A/B and Naim Nova PE is Class D. Class A/B runs warm and is the long-established mainstream choice; Class D runs cool and draws almost nothing at idle. Modern examples of both measure well - judge by the rest of the page. |
| Price | A | Accuphase E-280 costs less - $6,995 against $9,999 at list. |
A Accuphase E-280 B Naim Nova PE
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?
The usual trade-off: Naim Nova PE measures better, Accuphase E-280 costs about 30% less. With most speakers in most rooms that gap is smaller in practice than it looks here. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - Naim Nova PE is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. Start with the room. In a large or open-plan room, or with speakers that are hard to drive - low sensitivity, or an impedance that dips - Naim Nova PE has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 90 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 60 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate Naim Nova PE poorly for near-field use for exactly that reason.
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.