I was going to go with auric or some other metal film caps, and the critical resistors. Tube rolling, esp. when the tubes are going to last, is always cool. What i like is that it uses el84s and 12ax7s, which are plentiful, and has decent quality external parts. In terms of output trannies, the amp is down to 35Hz -1 db, so i am not going to mess with them...as you said they cost too much. This is purely low cost fun here!
A review of this amp on TNT-audio said it has a slight harshness to the sound on very rare passages like solo violin (compared to other mor eexpensive SETs). The review also said it had great bass.
Reviews on audioreview say this is a great SET, and only the zen triode sounds better.... i am curious if the zen will indeed sound better after i mod the caps & roll tubes...
ANyways, for whta it cost, it is worth keeping asa second amp!
-akhilesh