No single best amplifier here. What decides it is what you have to drive, what you need to plug in, and how much of the system you want in one box.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | evenly matched | Effectively the same output - 50W against 50W into 8 ohms is under 1dB, which is not an audible difference in loudness. |
| Speaker load rating | A | Arcam A5 is rated down to 4 ohms against 8, so it is the safer partner for a low-impedance speaker. |
| Noise floor | A | Arcam A5 is the quieter design on paper - 106dB against 90dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | evenly matched | Both have a DAC on board with much the same capability. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Rotel A11 MKII takes more analogue sources - 4 against 3. |
| Room to grow | A | Only Arcam A5 offers preamp outputs - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Price | A | Arcam A5 costs less - $699 against $799 at list. |
A Arcam A5 B Rotel A11 MKII
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?
Arcam A5 is the easier recommendation: it leads on most of the measured areas and costs less. Take Rotel A11 MKII if one of the "depends" rows above describes your system.
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.