One is a streaming all-in-one and the other is an amplifier. Judge them on how many boxes you want and what you already own, not on the spec sheet alone.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | A | Cambridge Audio AXR100 has more power - 100W against 80W into 8 ohms. That is about 1dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Both decode on board, but only Yamaha R-N600A handles DSD. |
| Streaming | evenly matched | Only Yamaha R-N600A has AirPlay 2. Neither list is longer in a way that matters - check the one service you actually pay for. |
| Price | A | Cambridge Audio AXR100 costs less - $699 against $800 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Cambridge Audio AXR100 is the cheaper watt - about $7 per watt against $10. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Cambridge Audio AXR100 B Yamaha R-N600A
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?
Cambridge Audio AXR100 has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is.
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.