A valve amplifier against a solid-state one. They are not really rivals: they differ in character, in what they will drive and in what owning them involves, so start there rather than with the watts.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | B | Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has more power - 80W against 40W into 8 ohms. That is about 3dB, so it plays usefully louder before it runs out and has more in hand on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate PrimaLuna EVO 100 Power the better fit for desk or near-field listening and a small room, and Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier for a mid-size room, a large room and a very large room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Noise floor | B | Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier is the quieter design on paper - 98dB against 92dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier takes more analogue sources - 2 against 1. |
| Phono stage | depends | Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has a built-in phono stage (MM) and PrimaLuna EVO 100 Power 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 Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Amplifier type | depends | PrimaLuna EVO 100 Power is Tube and Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier is Solid State. Valve designs are usually warmer and softer at the limits and need their tubes replaced eventually; solid state is the lower-maintenance choice. This is a taste and ownership decision, not a quality one. |
| Price | evenly matched | Priced within a few per cent of each other. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier is the cheaper watt - about $40 per watt against $77. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A PrimaLuna EVO 100 Power B Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier
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?
Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has the edge on paper, though not by much. The rows marked "depends" are more likely to decide this than the score is. 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 - Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 40 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 40 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier poorly for near-field use for exactly that reason. If you play records, Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier 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.