Question Suggestions for foundational parts of a longer term vinyl setup

[twinkletoes]

My nightmare of a brain and itchy wallet finger are getting jittery again. I'm just pondering the merits of upgrading the WiiM Mini purely at a theoretical level at this stage and trying to understand what costlier kit actually gets me. I would imagine that they should offer better build quality and components, but whether than translates into audible benefits is another matter.

One thing I've noticed is absolutely zero coverage anywhere of the ARCAM ST25 and I find that really weird. The A5/A15/A25 have all had plenty of reviews and the ST25 is available to buy but there's not a single review anywhere of it. I find that rather perplexing so have asked ARCAM what that's all about because that alone is enough to put me off.

Is this common? I'd have assumed that if you've just had a successful launch of a new bunch of amps and you follow that up with some new streamers, that you have the chance to snare a bunch of sales. The ST5 received a lukewarm reception, so does this imply that ARCAM know they've launched another sub-par streamer and so they haven't sent out loan units for review? Even then, I'd expect stockists to put out some sort of coverage.

It's very odd. I think ARCAM have a couple of all-in-one streamers due to release imminently (SA35 and SA40) but that shouldn't delay reviews of a standalone streamer, should it? They are somewhat positioned as a "family" of products (even though you'd never buy all three), so maybe that's it.

Dont worry about reviews ive owned many products that are hardly muttered about, Sugden for example or the Nait 50 I have just bought nearly nothing online or in publications.

Blusound have just released some very intreating updates to there there dac/streamer range, the Icon and the new Node. These have room correction, and that really does bring about some tangible benefits. But it comes at cost but worth investigating.