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 | Primare I25 has more power - 100W against 80W into 8 ohms. That is about 1dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Primare I25 the better fit for a large room and a very large room, and Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier for a small room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Grip on hard loads | A | Primare I25 holds up better into a 4-ohm load: its output nearly doubles to 200W, where the other increases strongly. That matters with demanding speakers far more than the 8-ohm figure does. |
| Noise floor | evenly matched | Much the same signal-to-noise ratio (100dB vs 98dB). |
| 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. |
| Streaming | B | Only Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has AirPlay 2, Roon and BluOS. |
| Analogue inputs | A | Primare I25 takes more analogue sources - 5 against 2. |
| Phono stage | depends | Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has a built-in phono stage (MM) and Primare I25 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. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Headphones | depends | Only Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Primare I25 is Class D and Roksan Attessa Streaming Amplifier 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. |
| Price | evenly matched | Priced within a few per cent of each other. |
A Primare I25 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?
Primare I25 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 - Primare I25 is the safer partner, because how an amplifier behaves when the impedance drops matters more than its 8-ohm rating. 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.