I never considered doing the Swenson thing. Like you I remember reading about it years ago. I suppose I just wanted to try out the little planar DHT as the input tube with a lot of gain especially as I found it to be so clear in my linestage.
The amp continues to break in. I increased the 0.1uf coupling cap by adding a couple of 0.22uf Russian KY40's. Since I bi-amp I was trying 0.1uf to see if I could decrease the bass signal going to the output tube but it was too effective. The mid bass is much fuller now.
As to the Bottlehead group, we are a small group that has met for over 10 years. We initially met at the Elkton MD library, and houses in Newark DE and Sterling VA but the library is no longer available and for the past few years we have mostly met at Steve's place in Sterling. However we seem to be dwindling since as John knows, it is quite a long drive from PA down to VA. It really is time for another meet.
You can read about some of our meets here.
http://bottlenecksaudio.blogspot.com/2015/06/bottleneck-meet-may-2015.htmlIf you live in the DC area, there is also DCAudioDIY
http://www.dcaudiodiy.com/phpBB3/which is a larger and just as friendly group and they have a discussion board as well as quite a few well known names among the members. Roscoe Primrose runs the group and has come to a few of our meets.
ray