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 EXA100 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. |
| Grip on hard loads | A | Cambridge EXA100 holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output increases strongly to 155W, where the other barely increases. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Bass control | A | Cambridge EXA100 has the higher damping factor (160 vs 90), which usually means a tighter grip on a woofer. Above about 100 the returns flatten out, so read this as a tendency rather than a ranking. |
| Noise floor | A | Cambridge EXA100 is the quieter design on paper - 91dB against 84dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board, but only Cambridge EXA100 handles DSD. |
| Streaming | B | Only NAD C 700 V2 has AirPlay 2 and BluOS. |
| Phono stage | depends | NAD C 700 V2 has a built-in phono stage and Cambridge EXA100 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 | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Headphones | depends | Only Cambridge EXA100 has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Cambridge EXA100 is Class A/B and NAD C 700 V2 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 | NAD C 700 V2 takes up about 59% less shelf area (651cm² against 1595cm²), and it is 74mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | NAD C 700 V2 costs less - $1,999 against $2,199 at list. |
A Cambridge EXA100 B NAD C 700 V2
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 EXA100 leads across most of the measured areas for a fairly modest premium, so it is the easier pick if the budget stretches. NAD C 700 V2 is the one to take if it does not. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - Cambridge EXA100 is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. If you play records, NAD C 700 V2 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.