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.

 

[The_Lecht_Rocks]

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.

Subscribing to follow the journey..
Similarly I have just bought a NAIT50 and considering relocation of the a WiiM Ultra to bedroom duty and replacement with new Node Icon, although balanced outputs worthless into NAIM 5PIN DIN

 

[twinkletoes]

Subscribing to follow the journey..
Similarly I have just bought a NAIT50 and considering relocation of the a WiiM Ultra to bedroom duty and replacement with new Node Icon, although balanced outputs worthless into NAIM 5PIN DIN

I run the wiim straight in to a DAC the qutest in this case, use everything in the main system. It's all the amp I need with such sensitive speakers, I can easily achieve 100db constant levels at just over a a quarter turn. It s a very capable preformer that im sure it will get repackaged into another product at sompoint.

It actually sounds almost like my sugden a21 with just alot more control and grunt.

the stand out for me is the phono stage it really is quite nice easily surpassing my MS mx vynl.

Best bit though it didnt cost me a penny on a trade in. The sugden has gone up so much in price over the years I got back what payed for it.

 

[The_Lecht_Rocks]

I run the wiim straight in to a DAC the qutest in this case, use everything in the main system. It's all the amp I need with such sensitive speakers, I can easily achieve 100db constant levels at just over a a quarter turn. It s a very capable preformer that im sure it will get repackaged into another product at sompoint.

It actually sounds almost like my sugden a21 with just alot more control and grunt.

the stand out for me is the phono stage it really is quite nice easily surpassing my MS mx vynl.

Best bit though it didnt cost me a penny on a trade in. The sugden has gone up so much in price over the years I got back what payed for it.

Agree re: the phono stage….
The NAIT 50 “forced” me into the purchase of a brand new Planar 6 ND7 combo 🤣
Anyways, back on thread !

 

[RTHerringbone]

ARCAM got back to me and said that they'll be sending units out to the press imminently for review. They were waiting to get enough of their all-in-one streamer units produced before generating reviews to avoid any stock issues.

As the ST25 is part of their "Radia 2" range, they haven't released that to the press yet either, even though they do have a decent supply of those units.

 

[Messiah]

They were waiting to get enough of their all-in-one streamer units produced before generating reviews to avoid any stock issues.

Sounds like they are confident the reviews will be good. 😊

 

[The_Lecht_Rocks]

Was interesting to read the new Roksan Attessa 4G review yesterday…
It’s a bit if a powerhouse including the streaming unit….
I do suspect this ought to throw a new meaning to “integrated amp “ a la Arcam SA35 et al
The only fly in the ointment is the software for streaming integration.
In my preferred order, WiiM , BluOS, StreamMagic…
The rest are utterly dreadful..

 

[RTHerringbone]

This is a bit of an aside, but I've just returned from a trip to Scotland where I was visiting my ailing stepdad. We got onto the subject of music and Hi-Fi, and it lead to a couple of (to me) interesting things.

First, he showed me the remains of his vinyl collection, which was mostly "lost" in his divorce back in the early 80s. It was a solid enough mix of stuff with some ELO, Jethro Tull, Fleetwood Mac. The Moody Blues etc., all of which he says I'm welcome to take on my next trip up there. Apparently my late mother's collection is in the loft but he did warn me that it's "just Cliff Richard and crap like that" - but I do suspect she'll have had the odd Beatles LP, so I'm curious to check.

In amongst the LPs were a couple of fairly generic classical records but what was interesting was that they were 1970s Quadrophonic recordings. What was more interesting, was that my stepdad says he was actually involved with what sounds like many branches of failed attempts to establish Quadrophonics as a commercially viable format. I knew that his background included some element of audio as his first business involved him designing "mail order build-it-yourself" home amplifiers. Apparently that was a thing back in the late 70s - a very engaged enthusiast market of people who wanted to build their own gear. I found this review scraped from the 70s of one of his products:

Powertran PSI 4002 Amp (Sound International, Dec 1978)

George Chkiantz assembles his very own Powertran PSI 4002 amp. Now it's your turn.

www.muzines.co.uk

And when rooting through some cupboards up there, I found a couple of 20+ year old DJ-focused components, from a failed toe that he dipped in the restaurant / entertainment business about 20 years ago. You'll note in the image the amp in the background - it's a 100W one of his that he still uses 😎

He said I'm welcome to take away the turntable and CD player to flog and raise funds for whatever the next shiny thing is that catches my eye. I think the CD player is fairly mediocre but the turntable could be worth a modest amount.

 

[RTHerringbone]

The domino effect of my tinkering continues 😀

The new Hi-Fi cabinet should be with me in a couple of weeks - I'm at #86 in the queue now.

In the meantime, I have realised that my old speaker stands are too low (50cm) whereas I need them to be a good 20cm+ taller to get the speaker placement right. Someone is picking up my freecycled current stands tomorrow and then I've got some new Kanto ST28P stands coming on Thursday 😎

 

[Fandango Andy]

I seem to remember from the images you posted originally that you had decent speaker stands. Someone has bagged themselves a bargain!

 

[RTHerringbone]

I seem to remember from the images you posted originally that you had decent speaker stands. Someone has bagged themselves a bargain!

I'm pretty sure they were old Atacama NeXXus stands, but at only 50cm high they were pretty short. When seated the speakers were still only at around shoulder level so I thought a little more height should be an easy to achieve improvement.

More tinkering is absolutely on the cards. I'm waiting for the Hi-Fi cabinet to arrive before making a streamer upgrade but may end up biting the bullet sooner because it's going to happen at some point anyway.....I have at least demonstrated some learning by not just instinctively ordering the discounted WiiM Ultra as I don't think that necessarily would give me a sonic boost from the Mini.

That will just leave the (old) headphones and (new) turntable in my sights. Things would have been easier if I'd just inwardly admitted up front that the budget was loose and always liable to snowball 🤦‍♂️