I always use a piece of mono as a butt section when using furled leaders. I don't care for loop to loop connections, I think a well tied nail knot is stronger and runs through the guides better. I use a 8-12 inch section of heavy mono (or the butt from an old mono leader) nail knotted to the fly line then use a modified blood knot to tie into the furled leader (I use 4 turns at the mono tag end and only 2 turns of the furled tag, it makes a smaller knot)

At the tip end I use a stepped tippet (10" 2x, 10" 4x and 16" 6x) attached with a double surgeons knot.

In my opinion this combination is easy to tie, provide good transfer of energy down the leader and is less bulky than other set ups...