After putting a ton of miles on a Marin hardtail mountain bike I found the stock saddle to be quite good. I just got a new Novara Randonee and set up the bike up to match my mountain bike:
Saddle Height (See Rivendell Bikes for a great fitting guidelines
http://www.rivendellbicycles.com/htm...tisframes.html)
Saddle Distance from Bars
Angle of Saddle - Nose Up / Down
I have used (just bought a B17) Brooks in the past and love them. Just haven't put it on my new bike yet.
I have found that with a good saddle set up wrong your going to hurt! A bad saddle plus bad fit just compounds the problem.