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 | A | Parasound Halo A23+ has more power - 160W against 120W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.2dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Parasound Halo A23+ the better fit for a very large room, and Rotel RA-1572 MKII for desk or near-field listening, a small room and a mid-size room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Grip on hard loads | B | Rotel RA-1572 MKII holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output increases strongly to 200W, where the other increases strongly. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Rotel RA-1572 MKII has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Rotel RA-1572 MKII takes more analogue sources - 4 against 2. |
| Phono stage | depends | Rotel RA-1572 MKII has a built-in phono stage (MM) and Parasound Halo A23+ does not. Decisive if you own a turntable, completely irrelevant if you do not - and an outboard phono stage is easy to add later either way. |
| Headphones | depends | Only Rotel RA-1572 MKII has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Parasound Halo A23+ is Class A/AB and Rotel RA-1572 MKII is Class A/B. 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. |
| Price | B | Rotel RA-1572 MKII costs less - $2,100 against $2,500 at list. |
A Parasound Halo A23+ 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 is the easier recommendation: it leads on most of the measured areas and costs less. Take Parasound Halo A23+ if one of the "depends" rows above describes your system. If your speakers are a difficult load - 4 ohms nominal, big woofers, or a sensitivity in the low 80s - Rotel RA-1572 MKII is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. If you play records, Rotel RA-1572 MKII saves you buying a phono stage; if you do not, ignore that row entirely.
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.