It is hard to believe that there is a better amp out there than the Herring VTSP, but I am willing to suspend my disbelief. If only I could demo them. One way to demo the Crayon would be to sell off the Croft Riia R and invest the money set aside for the RS upgrade. Then I could listen to it both as an integrated anp and as a phono stage. The Audiopax is without phono stage, so not really viable.
A Croft Micro 25 RS could be a possibility. Still I would love to demo first.