I went the opposite way. When I first got back on a road bike it was with Rival. It was ok. Rode and tuned my fair share of bikes with both SRAM and Shimano (bike mechanic here), but when the time came to buy a new bike I went with Ultegra. IMO SRAM has always had a cheaper look and feel to it. I have not ridden new Red so I cannot comment there, but I've also grown much more used to using the two levers for my shifting. The long single action of SRAM never suited me. This is just my personal preference.