Sunrace 11-46 (or even 11-50) are the usual alternative.  The 11-46 has a more even spread of ratios than the Shimano equivalent.

Personally, If you're going for 46t, then I'd say that 11 speed Sunrace is better than 11 speed XT.
Shimano is a silly big jump between gears 1 & 2, whereas Sunrace is more evenly distributed over the block.

Out of interest, whats up with the M8000? The jump between 1 & 2 is more teeth than usual but it's really smooth so as to be irrelevant ime.

Nothing wrong with the XT to be honest it’s just been a long time since I built up a bike from scratch and before I’ve always run a SRAM cassette with Shimano running gear so just thought I’d ask before spending any money!!

+1 for the Sunrace MX8 (11-46t) i'm now running it on two bikes, one with XT and one with GX/X1

i'm also running a 34T oval on my lefty F29er with the XT 11-46t cassette, it runs fine unless you back pedal,

the jump up is large, as others have said the sunrace spread is better

I've tried ithe XT cassette on an old short travel FS and it was never happy..

the sunrace can be had for £46 on ebay Taiwan sellers or £56 on CRC if they can get stock

black or champagne colour, my XT bigger cogs look a bit haggered after 8 months riding.

Out of interest, whats up with the M8000? The jump between 1 & 2 is more teeth than usual but it’s really smooth so as to be irrelevant ime.

As people are saying the jump on the 11-46 Shimano casette from 37-46 teeth is too much so no matter how smooth the shift is the jump is too big . If you are running a Shimano 11-42 casette then that problem doesn't exist .

Bigger gaps where it matters or a big jump to a bail out gear?

I have both XT and Sunrace cassettes and have swapped them around a couple of bikes to decide which i preferred and the sunrace was best due to the better spread and is quieter using a FSA team chain.

Sram PG-1130 is 11-42 and fits a Shimano HG freehub.

Thanks all.

"

As people are saying the jump on the 11-46 Shimano casette from 37-46 teeth is too much so no matter how smooth the shift is the jump is too big "

<span class="bbp-reply-post-date">Posted 1 day ago"</span>

Why does it matter if it's not noticeable?

"If you are running a Shimano 11-42 casette then that problem doesn’t exist ."

What problem?

Just in case the comment above was not trolling here is the answer .

The shift may be smooth but the fact that the jump in your gear ratios is over 20% is going to be very noticeable . The Shimano 11-42 casette only jumps from 37-42 teeth which is only a little over 10 % which is a similar jump to what most gear changes on that casette will give you .

I think the SunRace shifting is slightly better than M8000, but the SR sprockets are individual & trash alloy freehub bodies. For that reason i'll be getting rid of my SR and going back to M8000.

I ran an XT 11-46 cassette for a couple of rides, but I found the colossal step between largest and second largest sprockets to be too noticeable to the point that I swapped it for a Sunrace.  The shifting with Sunrace isn't quite as good and it occasionally drops the chain off the 11t sprocket when changing up too quickly (some fine tuning of the upper limit crew took trial and error), but otherwise it's far better in terms of ratio spread.

The 37-46t step up/down is not a problem ime.

In fact it makes you a stronger climber when using the 46t as a bail-out gear.

Did me anyway!

E.g, climbed the first climb at Afan in the 37t, (32 front) no problem. My legs felt it but no problem with loss of traction.

The dry trails obviously helped.