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 | Anthem STR has more power - 200W against 150W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.2dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Hegel H200 the better fit for desk or near-field listening, a small room and a mid-size room, and Anthem STR for a very large room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Noise floor | B | Anthem STR is the quieter design on paper - 120dB against 100dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Both decode on board, but only Anthem STR handles DSD. |
| Streaming | evenly matched | Only Hegel H200 has Chromecast. Neither list is longer in a way that matters - check the one service you actually pay for. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Anthem STR takes more analogue sources - 5 against 3. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Price | evenly matched | Priced within a few per cent of each other. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Anthem STR is the cheaper watt - about $25 per watt against $33. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Hegel H200 B Anthem STR
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?
Anthem STR has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is.
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.