I was the fortunate recipient of Minorl's SP-11 and would concur with his assessment that the SP-11 was very close to the Ref 3. Over the past year, I've been A/B-ing the SP-11 with an SP-10 (with ARC stock EH tubes), and SP-9 mki (with the stock Chinese ARC tubes changed out to a pair of Siemens Cca with great results) and an SP-8 mkii (with various NOS 5751, 12AX7 and 6DJ8/6922 tubes rolled in/out). As you wrote, if the phono stage isn't that critical to you, then I would rank them as follows:
SP-11
SP-9 (with the caveat that the stock 6922 tubes be replaced)
SP-10
SP-8 mkii
I've also read great things about the LS-5 mkii/mkiii but have yet to hear it first hand.
SP-11
SP-9 (with the caveat that the stock 6922 tubes be replaced)
SP-10
SP-8 mkii
I've also read great things about the LS-5 mkii/mkiii but have yet to hear it first hand.