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 | B | Rotel RA-1572 MKII has more power - 120W against 70W into 8 ohms. That is about 2.3dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Denon PMA-1600NE the better fit for a small room, and Rotel RA-1572 MKII for a large room and a very large room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Grip on hard loads | A | Denon PMA-1600NE holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output nearly doubles to 140W, where the other increases strongly. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | A | Denon PMA-1600NE is the quieter design on paper - 108dB against 100dB. 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. |
| Streaming | evenly matched | Only Rotel RA-1572 MKII has Roon. Neither list is longer in a way that matters - check the one service you actually pay for. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Rotel RA-1572 MKII takes more analogue sources - 4 against 3. |
| Room to grow | B | Only Rotel RA-1572 MKII offers preamp outputs - which decides whether you can add a subwoofer or a power amplifier later without replacing the box. |
| Shelf space | depends | Rotel RA-1572 MKII takes up about 14% less shelf area (1675cm² against 1949cm²), and it is 62mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | evenly matched | Priced within a few per cent of each other. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Rotel RA-1572 MKII is the cheaper watt - about $18 per watt against $30. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Denon PMA-1600NE B Rotel RA-1572 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?
Rotel RA-1572 MKII has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - Denon PMA-1600NE is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. 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 - Rotel RA-1572 MKII has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 70 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 50 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate Rotel RA-1572 MKII poorly for near-field use for exactly that reason.
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.