Different price classes - Emotiva BasX TA2+ costs roughly 1.6x what Denon DRA-900H does. Expect it to lead on paper; the question is whether you will hear the difference through the speakers you own.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | B | Emotiva BasX TA2+ has more power - 135W against 100W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.3dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board, but only Denon DRA-900H handles DSD. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Emotiva BasX TA2+ takes more analogue sources - 4 against 2. |
| Use with a TV | depends | Only Denon DRA-900H 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. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Price | A | Denon DRA-900H costs less - $799 against $1,299 at list. |
A Denon DRA-900H B Emotiva BasX TA2+
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?
Emotiva BasX TA2+ is ahead, but on only 1 of the measured areas, and it costs about 63% more. That is a lot of money for a narrow margin - Denon DRA-900H is the sensible buy unless a specific feature above decides it for you. If this sits under a television, Denon DRA-900H is the one to buy - HDMI ARC means the TV remote controls the volume and there is no second box in the way. Think about the whole system: the roughly $500 saved by taking the cheaper one would buy better speakers or a subwoofer, which does more for the sound than the difference between two competent amplifiers.
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.