OK, as promised Jez's new stage was delivered to me last night and I have had a listen.... plugged it all in and everything worked exactly as it should - I didn't have to mess with the grounding options as there was no hum to eliminate. Hiss and gain levels were very similar to my regular Paradise (in other words, quite high gain and very low hiss). As to the sound - well very similar indeed to my Paradise - bloody fantastic! It has the same sort of poise, dynamic and vitality. I didn't have Si's adjustable loading plugs so couldn't experiment much with the loading. I did feel the native loading (I believe this is 600 Ohms) sounded just a bit more airy and focussed than the loading plugs supplied, but the difference was small. I'm finishing early today so will have another listen when I get home - but this is certainly one of the finest sounding stages I have heard.