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 | NAD C 700 has more power - 80W against 60W 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 Marantz Model 60n the better fit for desk or near-field listening and a small room, and NAD C 700 for a mid-size room, 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 | Marantz Model 60n holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output increases modestly to 80W, where the other barely increases. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | A | Marantz Model 60n is the quieter design on paper - 113dB against 84dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Both decode on board, but only NAD C 700 handles MQA. |
| Streaming | evenly matched | Only Marantz Model 60n has HEOS; only NAD C 700 has BluOS. Neither list is longer in a way that matters - check the one service you actually pay for. |
| Analogue inputs | A | Marantz Model 60n takes more analogue sources - 3 against 2. |
| Phono stage | depends | Marantz Model 60n has a built-in phono stage (MM) and NAD C 700 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 | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Headphones | depends | Only Marantz Model 60n has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Marantz Model 60n is Class A/B and NAD C 700 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 C 700 takes up about 66% less shelf area (651cm² against 1912cm²), and it is 136mm 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 | NAD C 700 is the cheaper watt - about $20 per watt against $27. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Marantz Model 60n B NAD C 700
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?
Neither runs away with it - they trade advantages. Let the "depends" rows and the speakers you already own settle it. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - Marantz Model 60n is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. If you play records, Marantz Model 60n 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.