Did you guys notice that John has two posts this afternoon? This one says he's still making significant strides. The other one says he's not holding out for everything - but leaving an upgrade path for future improvements.
This is the delicate balance of product development - Doc B gets to decide ultimately, but we are all aiming for the time when he yanks the design out of the engineer's hands and makes it a product.
I've been listening to this project (as well as working on the tube gain stage) for some time now. And for the record, a) I HATE digital, and b) I'm buying John's design when it comes out even if I have to drive it with a $39 DVD player.