Hope you folks don't mind my intrusion, but I recently spoke with Eric and can answer the posted question regarding if the new output stage gets you up to SE level sound.
The way Eric put it is that no matter how you cut it, there are some things the SE will just do "better". That said, the way he rated them overall in order from lowest to highest on the ladder was: stock standard, stock SE, standard + output stage, SE + output stage. Note that the difference between stock SE and standard + output stage is REALLY close.
Hope that helps.
This from a SE owner who still has to make time to get back with Eric to get the output stage upgrade done. . .
