These are not the same size of amplifier: Yamaha R200A has roughly 2x the power of Audioengine N22 G2. That is about 3dB, 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 | Yamaha R200A has more power - 100W against 50W into 8 ohms. That is about 3dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| 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 | A | Yamaha R200A takes more analogue sources - 3 against 2. |
| Phono stage | depends | Yamaha R200A has a built-in phono stage and Audioengine N22 G2 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. |
| Room to grow | A | Only Yamaha R200A offers a subwoofer output - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Shelf space | depends | Audioengine N22 G2 takes up about 85% less shelf area (218cm² against 1427cm²), and it is 118mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Audioengine N22 G2 costs less - $269 against $300 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Yamaha R200A is the cheaper watt - about $3 per watt against $5. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Yamaha R200A 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?
Yamaha R200A leads across most of the measured areas for a fairly modest premium, so it is the easier pick if the budget stretches. Audioengine N22 G2 is the one to take if it does not. 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 - Yamaha R200A has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 50 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 50 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear. If you play records, Yamaha R200A 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.