On my second/hack/road/hardtail bike i have a stock set of tektro aurigo comp dic brakes. On my Full sus i have 2009 XTs.

Obviously the XTs are far superior, are there any shimano brakes that use the same pads as XTs that will perform better than the Tektros and not brake (joke btw) the bank??

Someone was selling a pair of second hand XTs for 135£. They are new at Merlin for 185£. SLX ones are also meant to be very very good but the price difference from XTs isn't that great. This years Deore ones are also good but I think they use different pads.