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 | evenly matched | Effectively the same output - 80W against 80W into 8 ohms is under 1dB, which is not an audible difference in loudness. |
| Grip on hard loads | evenly matched | Both behave much the same into 4 ohms - output barely increases (80W and 80W). |
| Noise floor | B | NAD C 368 BluOS-2i is the quieter design on paper - 98dB against 95dB. 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. |
| Streaming | B | Only NAD C 368 BluOS-2i has AirPlay 2, Roon and BluOS. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Price | A | NAD C 379 costs less - $1,099 against $1,749 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | NAD C 379 is the cheaper watt - about $14 per watt against $22. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A NAD C 379 B NAD C 368 BluOS-2i
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?
NAD C 368 BluOS-2i is ahead, but on only 1 of the measured areas, and it costs about 59% more. That is a lot of money for a narrow margin - NAD C 379 is the sensible buy unless a specific feature above decides it for you. Think about the whole system: the roughly $650 saved by taking the cheaper one would buy better speakers or a subwoofer, which does more for the sound than the difference between two competent amplifiers.
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.