These are not the same size of amplifier: Emotiva BasX TA1 has roughly 2x the power of NAD D 3020 V2. That is about 3dB, so it is a question of room size and how hard your speakers are to drive, not of one being the better amplifier.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | A | Emotiva BasX TA1 has more power - 60W against 30W into 8 ohms. That is about 3dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Emotiva BasX TA1 the better fit for a very large room, and NAD D 3020 V2 for desk or near-field listening. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Noise floor | A | Emotiva BasX TA1 is the quieter design on paper - 120dB against 98dB. 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. |
| Analogue inputs | A | Emotiva BasX TA1 takes more analogue sources - 3 against 1. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Emotiva BasX TA1 is Class A/B and NAD D 3020 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 D 3020 V2 takes up about 89% less shelf area (146cm² against 1371cm²), and it is 70mm 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 | A | Emotiva BasX TA1 is the cheaper watt - about $8 per watt against $17. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Emotiva BasX TA1 B NAD D 3020 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?
Emotiva BasX TA1 has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. Start with the room. In a large or open-plan room, or with speakers that are hard to drive - low sensitivity, or an impedance that dips - Emotiva BasX TA1 has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 30 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 30 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear.
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.