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 | Yamaha A-S1200 has more power - 90W against 70W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.1dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| 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 | evenly matched | Much the same signal-to-noise ratio (108dB vs 110dB). |
| Built-in DAC | A | Denon PMA-1600NE has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Yamaha A-S1200 takes more analogue sources - 6 against 3. |
| Room to grow | B | Only Yamaha A-S1200 offers preamp outputs - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Price | A | Denon PMA-1600NE costs less - $2,099 against $3,000 at list. |
A Denon PMA-1600NE B Yamaha A-S1200
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?
Yamaha A-S1200 is ahead, but on only 1 of the measured areas, and it costs about 43% more. That is a lot of money for a narrow margin - Denon PMA-1600NE is the sensible buy unless a specific feature above decides it for you. 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 already own a DAC or a streamer, the built-in one is money you are paying twice for, and Yamaha A-S1200 becomes the more rational buy.
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.