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 | B | Cambridge EXA100 has more power - 100W against 70W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.5dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Denon PMA-1600NE the better fit for a small room, and Cambridge EXA100 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 | A | Denon PMA-1600NE holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output nearly doubles to 140W, where the other increases strongly. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | A | Denon PMA-1600NE is the quieter design on paper - 108dB against 91dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | evenly matched | Both have a DAC on board with much the same capability. |
| Streaming | evenly matched | Only Cambridge EXA100 has Roon. Neither list is longer in a way that matters - check the one service you actually pay for. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Cambridge EXA100 takes more analogue sources - 5 against 3. |
| Phono stage | depends | Denon PMA-1600NE has a built-in phono stage (MM,MC) 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 | B | Only Cambridge EXA100 offers preamp outputs - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Shelf space | depends | Cambridge EXA100 takes up about 18% less shelf area (1595cm² against 1949cm²), and it is 78mm 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 | Cambridge EXA100 is the cheaper watt - about $22 per watt against $30. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Denon PMA-1600NE B Cambridge EXA100
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 has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - Denon PMA-1600NE is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. If you play records, Denon PMA-1600NE 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.