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 | B | Arcam A25 has more power - 100W against 72W into 8 ohms. That is about 1.4dB, which is a small step in loudness but real headroom on peaks. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Rega Elex-R the better fit for a small room, and Arcam A25 for a large room and a very large room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Built-in DAC | B | Arcam A25 has a DAC on board; the other needs an external one, which is another box, another power lead and another purchase. |
| Analogue inputs | A | Rega Elex-R takes more analogue sources - 4 against 3. |
| Room to grow | evenly matched | The same expansion options on both. |
| Amplifier class | depends | Rega Elex-R is Class A/B and Arcam A25 is Class G. Class A/B runs warm and is the long-established mainstream choice; Class G/H switches its supply rails to cut the heat a Class A/B design wastes. Modern examples of both measure well - judge by the rest of the page. |
| Price | A | Rega Elex-R costs less - $1,395 against $1,499 at list. |
| Watts per dollar | B | Arcam A25 is the cheaper watt - about $15 per watt against $19. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Rega Elex-R B Arcam A25
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?
The usual trade-off: Arcam A25 measures better, Rega Elex-R costs about 7% less. With most speakers in most rooms that gap is smaller in practice than it looks here. If you already own a DAC or a streamer, the built-in one is money you are paying twice for, and Rega Elex-R becomes the more rational buy.
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.