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 | Cambridge Audio Evo 300 has more power - 300W against 200W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.8dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Grip on hard loads | evenly matched | Both behave much the same into 4 ohms - output increases strongly (550W and 350W). |
| Built-in DAC | A | Both decode on board. Cambridge Audio Evo 300 goes higher - 768kHz against 384kHz. Very few recordings exist above 192kHz, so treat this as headroom, not as sound quality. |
| Streaming | A | Only Cambridge Audio Evo 300 has AirPlay 2 and Chromecast. |
| Use with a TV | depends | Only Cambridge Audio Evo 300 has HDMI eARC, so the television can drive it directly and one remote controls the volume. If the system is for music only, this changes nothing. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Cambridge Audio Evo 300 is Class D and Rotel RA-1592 MKII is Class A/B. Class D runs cool and draws almost nothing at idle; Class A/B runs warm and is the long-established mainstream choice. Modern examples of both measure well - judge by the rest of the page. |
| Shelf space | depends | Cambridge Audio Evo 300 takes up about 23% less shelf area (1463cm² against 1888cm²), and it is 59mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Rotel RA-1592 MKII costs less - $3,200 against $3,999 at list. |
A Cambridge Audio Evo 300 B Rotel RA-1592 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?
Cambridge Audio Evo 300 leads across most of the measured areas for a fairly modest premium, so it is the easier pick if the budget stretches. Rotel RA-1592 MKII is the one to take if it does not. If this sits under a television, Cambridge Audio Evo 300 is the one to buy - HDMI ARC means the TV remote controls the volume and there is no second box in the way.
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.