Advice on best amplifier + speakers to manage a difficult room

[skinnypuppy71]

It's nice to know some folks are getting into dads vinyl collection..lol..brilliant stuff.
On another note, I wouldn't rely on the room correction of the wiim products, it's very basic and when I had the wiim ultra, I tried it out just for curiosity sake, into my then Acoustic energy ae1 active speakers, it did actually make the sound worse and basically removed all the bass in my little 2x2 summer house which does suffer from bass boom at certain a frequency...but the room correction over compensated and I reverted to the flat response, but I will give it this, the parametric eq on the wiim app is very handy, so Yeah!....maybe the room correction ain't that great but you'd still have a decent eq to play with until a agreeable setting was found.
Enjoy your vinyl, it's great fun..

 

[RTHerringbone]

So then the choice is between Rotel A8, Rega Io and the first gen Audoliab which are all around £400. Any thoughts on the relative pros and cons.

I've had the Marantz PM6007 you mention in your first post. It's very capable and represents big bang for the buck at the price point. If aesthetics matter, it may be a bit of a mismatch if / when you get the WiiM Ultra. It's a bit old-fashioned looking to my taste, but one of the best options in that price bracket.

I can't give an objective view on the other options. I like Rega stuff and like the look of the IO so I'd lean that way personally, but based on nothing other than preference.