These are not the same size of amplifier: PS Audio Stellar M700 has roughly 2.6x the power of Emotiva BasX TA2+. That is about 4.1dB, so it is a question of room size and how hard your speakers are to drive, not of one being the better amplifier.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | A | PS Audio Stellar M700 has more power - 350W against 135W into 8 ohms. That is about 4.1dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate PS Audio Stellar M700 the better fit for a very large room, and Emotiva BasX TA2+ for desk or near-field listening, a small room and a mid-size room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Grip on hard loads | evenly matched | Both behave much the same into 4 ohms - output nearly doubles (700W and 250W). |
| Noise floor | B | Emotiva BasX TA2+ is the quieter design on paper - 120dB against 105dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Emotiva BasX TA2+ has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Emotiva BasX TA2+ takes more analogue sources - 4 against 1. |
| Phono stage | depends | Emotiva BasX TA2+ has a built-in phono stage (MM and MC, 47k ohm MM, selectable 47 or 100 ohm MC) and PS Audio Stellar M700 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. |
| Headphones | depends | Only Emotiva BasX TA2+ has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Amplifier class | depends | PS Audio Stellar M700 is Class D and Emotiva BasX TA2+ is Class A/B. Class D runs cool and draws almost nothing at idle; Class A/B runs warm and is the long-established mainstream choice. Modern examples of both measure well - judge by the rest of the page. |
| Shelf space | depends | PS Audio Stellar M700 takes up about 23% less shelf area (1316cm² against 1700cm²), and it is 89mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Emotiva BasX TA2+ costs less - $1,299 against $1,749 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | PS Audio Stellar M700 is the cheaper watt - about $5 per watt against $10. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A PS Audio Stellar M700 B Emotiva BasX TA2+
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?
Emotiva BasX TA2+ has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. Start with the room. In a large or open-plan room, or with speakers that are hard to drive - low sensitivity, or an impedance that dips - PS Audio Stellar M700 has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 135 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 215 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate PS Audio Stellar M700 poorly for near-field use for exactly that reason. If you play records, Emotiva BasX TA2+ 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.