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 | B | Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated has more power - 125W against 100W into 8 ohms. That is about 1dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board, but only Yamaha R-N800A handles DSD. |
| Streaming | evenly matched | Only Yamaha R-N800A has AirPlay 2. Neither list is longer in a way that matters - check the one service you actually pay for. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated takes more analogue sources - 4 against 3. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Yamaha R-N800A is Class A/B and Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated 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. |
| Price | evenly matched | Priced within a few per cent of each other. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated is the cheaper watt - about $11 per watt against $14. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Yamaha R-N800A B Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated
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?
Parasound NewClassic 200 Integrated has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is.
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.