These are not the same size of amplifier: Audioengine N22 G2 has roughly 5x the power of Schiit Gjallarhorn F. That is about 7dB, 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 | B | Audioengine N22 G2 has more power - 50W against 10W into 8 ohms. That is about 7dB - a different class of amplifier rather than a bigger version of the same one, and far more than most rooms will ever ask for. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Schiit Gjallarhorn F the better fit for desk or near-field listening, and Audioengine N22 G2 for a very large room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Grip on hard loads | A | Schiit Gjallarhorn F holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output increases strongly to 15W, where the other barely increases. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | A | Schiit Gjallarhorn F is the quieter design on paper - 117dB against 90dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Audioengine N22 G2 has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Analogue inputs | evenly matched | The same number of line-level inputs (2). |
| Headphones | depends | Only Audioengine N22 G2 has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Shelf space | depends | Audioengine N22 G2 takes up about 37% less shelf area (218cm² against 348cm²), and it is 58mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Audioengine N22 G2 costs less - $269 against $299 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Audioengine N22 G2 is the cheaper watt - about $5 per watt against $30. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Schiit Gjallarhorn F B Audioengine N22 G2
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?
Audioengine N22 G2 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 - Schiit Gjallarhorn F is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. 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 - Audioengine N22 G2 has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 10 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 40 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear.
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.