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 | evenly matched | Effectively the same output - 140W against 120W into 8 ohms is under 1dB, which is not an audible difference in loudness. |
| Room size | depends | We rate Rotel RAS-5000 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 | evenly matched | Both behave much the same into 4 ohms - output increases strongly (220W and 200W). |
| Noise floor | A | Rotel RAS-5000 is the quieter design on paper - 103dB 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 | A | Only Rotel RAS-5000 has AirPlay 2 and Chromecast. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Rotel RA-1572 MKII takes more analogue sources - 4 against 1. |
| Phono stage | depends | Rotel RA-1572 MKII has a built-in phono stage (MM) and Rotel RAS-5000 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. |
| Shelf space | depends | Rotel RA-1572 MKII takes up about 14% less shelf area (1675cm² against 1940cm²), and it is 61mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | B | Rotel RA-1572 MKII costs less - $2,100 against $2,999 at list. |
A Rotel RAS-5000 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 RAS-5000 is ahead, but on only 1 of the measured areas, and it costs about 43% more. That is a lot of money for a narrow margin - Rotel RA-1572 MKII is the sensible buy unless a specific feature above decides it for you. If you play records, Rotel RA-1572 MKII saves you buying a phono stage; if you do not, ignore that row entirely. Think about the whole system: the roughly $899 saved by taking the cheaper one would buy better speakers or a subwoofer, which does more for the sound than the difference between two competent amplifiers.
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.