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 | A | Yamaha R-S202 has more power - 100W against 80W into 8 ohms. That is about 1dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Yamaha R-N600A has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Streaming | evenly matched | Only Yamaha R-N600A has AirPlay 2. Neither list is longer in a way that matters - check the one service you actually pay for. |
| Shelf space | depends | Yamaha R-S202 takes up about 13% less shelf area (1506cm² against 1740cm²), and it is 52mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | A | Yamaha R-S202 costs less - $250 against $800 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Yamaha R-S202 is the cheaper watt - about $3 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 Yamaha R-S202 B Yamaha R-N600A
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?
Yamaha R-S202 has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. If you already own a DAC or a streamer, the built-in one is money you are paying twice for, and Yamaha R-S202 becomes the more rational buy. Think about the whole system: the roughly $550 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.