I had an SP-8 and then an SP-10 before getting an SP-11. I sold the SP-11 to a friend who still uses it and it still sounds great.
These are all fine preamplifiers. They come from the era when LP was the dominant source, so they all have excellent phono stages. In those days, the integrated phono stage got more attention than the line stage; the consequence was that these preamps simply don’t have the most neutral line stages. They can sound quite pleasant with digital sources, but they’re really not especially neutral.
As good as these units are - and the SP-11 is especially good - they can’t compete with today’s Ref series. It’s not even close.
These are all fine preamplifiers. They come from the era when LP was the dominant source, so they all have excellent phono stages. In those days, the integrated phono stage got more attention than the line stage; the consequence was that these preamps simply don’t have the most neutral line stages. They can sound quite pleasant with digital sources, but they’re really not especially neutral.
As good as these units are - and the SP-11 is especially good - they can’t compete with today’s Ref series. It’s not even close.