Well, I played with the 222 some more last night to get a little more familiar with it. I came to the conclusion that it is an improvement over the S200MK II. By how much is debatable. The detail in violins were a little cleaner and crisper. Bass a little tighter, and mids about the same. Now whether that's because of the tubes, I'm not sure. My S200MK is still using the stock Chinese tubes while the 222 has Russian tubes installed, at least in the demo unit I'm referring to. Considering I've been listening to the very highly acclaimed Shengya CS-6 pre all week, I was pleasantly surprised at how the Cyber222 sounded.
I think it's a good buy in it's price range. Whether it's better than the Reference 50 that you were contemplating, I don't know. I do know I'm very happy with my Ref. 40 phono stage, but then, I've liked the whole Ref. series since I first saw it. It's very nicely finished and quite elegant in appearance.