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 | OSD Nero Stream XD2 has more power - 60W against 35W into 8 ohms. That is about 2.3dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Cambridge Audio AXA35 the better fit for desk or near-field listening, and OSD Nero Stream XD2 for a very large room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Speaker load rating | B | OSD Nero Stream XD2 is rated down to 4 ohms against 8, so it is the safer partner for a low-impedance speaker. |
| Noise floor | B | OSD Nero Stream XD2 is the quieter design on paper - 95dB against 82dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | B | OSD Nero Stream XD2 has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Analogue inputs | A | Cambridge Audio AXA35 takes more analogue sources - 5 against 1. |
| Phono stage | depends | Cambridge Audio AXA35 has a built-in phono stage (MM,MC) and OSD Nero Stream XD2 does not. Decisive if you own a turntable, completely irrelevant if you do not - and an outboard phono stage is easy to add later either way. |
| Room to grow | B | Only OSD Nero Stream XD2 offers preamp outputs - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Cambridge Audio AXA35 is Class A/B and OSD Nero Stream XD2 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. |
| Shelf space | depends | OSD Nero Stream XD2 takes up about 57% less shelf area (688cm² against 1598cm²), and it is 89mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | evenly matched | Priced within a few per cent of each other. |
| Watts per dollar | B | OSD Nero Stream XD2 is the cheaper watt - about $7 per watt against $11. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Cambridge Audio AXA35 B OSD Nero Stream XD2
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?
OSD Nero Stream XD2 has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. 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 - OSD Nero Stream XD2 has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 35 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 25 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear. If you play records, Cambridge Audio AXA35 saves you buying a phono stage; if you do not, ignore that row entirely.
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.