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 | evenly matched | Effectively the same output - 100W against 100W into 8 ohms is under 1dB, which is not an audible difference in loudness. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Yamaha R-N800A 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-N800A has AirPlay 2. Neither list is longer in a way that matters - check the one service you actually pay for. |
| Analogue inputs | evenly matched | The same number of line-level inputs (3). |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Shelf space | depends | Yamaha R200A takes up about 22% less shelf area (1427cm² against 1830cm²), and it is 93mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | A | Yamaha R200A costs less - $300 against $1,400 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Yamaha R200A is the cheaper watt - about $3 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 R200A B Yamaha R-N800A
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?
Neither runs away with it - they trade advantages. Let the "depends" rows and the speakers you already own settle it. 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 $1,100 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.