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 |
|---|
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board, but only Marantz M-CR612 handles DSD. |
| Streaming | evenly matched | The same streaming platforms and services on both. |
| Built-in sources | depends | Marantz M-CR612 has a CD player built in. That is one less box if you still play discs or listen to radio, and dead weight if you do not. |
| Shelf space | depends | Bose Music Amplifier takes up about 41% less shelf area (500cm² against 849cm²), and it is 79mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Bose Music Amplifier costs less - $579 against $650 at list. |
A Marantz M-CR612 B Bose Music Amplifier
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?
The usual trade-off: Marantz M-CR612 measures better, Bose Music Amplifier costs about 11% less. With most speakers in most rooms that gap is smaller in practice than it looks here.
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.