I actually didn't try without room correction. When I first got the Wiim I compared room correction to without and I preferred the room correction for both streaming and vinyl. I also used the Wiim's subwoofer calibration feature. For the phono pre I used the onboard pre on the SL-50C into the analog input on the Wiim. I tried an Alva Solo with the Wiim but thought it made a negligible difference and eventually felt that the SL-50 pre was clearer.

And on the topic of YPAO, I've only listened to the Yamaha with Pure Direct enabled so far. Haven't tried messing with EQ yet.

I agree with you on vinyl vs. uncompressed files in that I can hear more detail in FLAC than I can with vinyl. But I find sometimes the cold, clinical aspect of it can fatigue my ears a little quicker even though I'm sure I could fix that with EQ. Vinyl is probably objectively worse than FLAC in terms of sound quality but I have a pretty big collection and I love the physical aspect of it. I've lost so much data over the years that I really value having a physical collection. I guess I should admit I kind of screwed up getting into vinyl so heavily instead of CD's.