I’ve owned the Ref5se three times through the years, simply an extraordinary preamp that bridges the gap between the ARC of yesteryear and the ARC of today. In fact, I preferred it to the Ref6.
I have also owned in the past several versions of the Shindo Aurieges and Monbrison preamps including the most recent versions of the Monbrison and Aurieges. What amplification and speakers are you planning on using? In addition, I haven’t owned a vinyl setup in years and it never bothered me that my preamp had a phono stage. It won’t hold you at gunpoint and force you to get a turntable nor will it refuse to work if you don’t LOL.
The current version of the Aurieges exceeds the performance of the previous Monbrison in my opinion and may be one of the great values in high end preamplifiers, however, it all depends on you amplification and cabling. When matched appropriately, there is simply nothing like the Shindo sound. When NOT matched appropriately, you will wonder what all the fuss is about.
The comment about Shindo not being appropriate for rock and roll is incorrect. A properly configured and set up Shindo system just plays music exeptionally well. It isn’t euphonic, it just sounds like music. It doesn’t “bloom”, it just gets tone, texture and tempo better than most anything. Full disclosure: I have owned alot of gear through the years and there is alot of great gear out there. I enjoy Audio Note and Shindo and Leben.