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 PM7000N 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 PM7000N 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 PM7000N is the quieter design on paper - 115dB 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 PM7000N 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 PM7000N takes more analogue sources - 3 against 2. |
| Phono stage | depends | Marantz PM7000N 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 PM7000N has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Marantz PM7000N 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 61% less shelf area (651cm² against 1684cm²), and it is 85mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | A | Marantz PM7000N costs less - $1,299 against $1,499 at list. |
A Marantz PM7000N 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?
Marantz PM7000N has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - Marantz PM7000N 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 PM7000N 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.