These are not the same size of amplifier: Schiit Vidar 2F has roughly 2x the power of Rotel A11 Tribute. That is about 3dB, so it is a question of room size and how hard your speakers are to drive, not of one being the better amplifier.
| Area | Better | Why |
|---|
| Power | A | Schiit Vidar 2F has more power - 100W against 50W 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 Schiit Vidar 2F the better fit for a mid-size room, a large room and a very large room, and Rotel A11 Tribute for desk or near-field listening and a small room. Match the amplifier to the room you actually have, not the one you want. |
| Noise floor | A | Schiit Vidar 2F is the quieter design on paper - 123dB against 100dB. Audible mainly with sensitive speakers in a quiet room. |
| Analogue inputs | B | Rotel A11 Tribute takes more analogue sources - 4 against 2. |
| Phono stage | depends | Rotel A11 Tribute has a built-in phono stage (MM) and Schiit Vidar 2F 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 A11 Tribute has a headphone output. Worth something if you listen late, nothing if you never do. |
| Shelf space | depends | Schiit Vidar 2F takes up about 54% less shelf area (755cm² against 1629cm²), and it is 47mm shallower, which is the measurement that decides whether a rack door shuts. |
| Price | evenly matched | Priced within a few per cent of each other. |
| Watts per dollar | A | Schiit Vidar 2F is the cheaper watt - about $8 per watt against $16. A blunt measure, and it says nothing about how either sounds, but it is the honest one for raw output. |
A Schiit Vidar 2F B Rotel A11 Tribute
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?
Schiit Vidar 2F 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 - Schiit Vidar 2F has the headroom, and headroom is what stops an amplifier hardening up on peaks. At desk distance or in a small room, 50 watts is already more than most people ever use, and the extra 50 watts would be headroom you pay for and never hear - we rate Schiit Vidar 2F poorly for near-field use for exactly that reason. If you play records, Rotel A11 Tribute 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.