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 R200A 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. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Yamaha R-N600A takes more analogue sources - 4 against 3. |
| Room to grow | A | Only Yamaha R200A offers preamp outputs - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Shelf space | depends | Yamaha R200A takes up about 18% less shelf area (1427cm² against 1740cm²), and it is 71mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | A | Yamaha R200A costs less - $300 against $800 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Yamaha R200A 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 R200A 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 R200A 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 R200A becomes the more rational buy. Think about the whole system: the roughly $500 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.