Not surprised. "Sam" (not his real name) has been reading SOUND PRACTICES and LISTENER, and he's also been badgered repeatedly by the NYC triode mafia. So it's not surprising that he's starting to ape them. The NY audiophile scene is one of the most trend-obsessed I've ever seen. They might as well be writing for VOGUE or WWD.

>At the risk of sounding looney the sound seems to me to be etched in glass

That's quite typical of audiophile equipment. It's not unusual for such products to deliberately have uptilted HF response. Speakers and especially high-priced moving coil cartridges are notorious for this. It's deliberate--the makers know that their middle-aged male customers are suffering from high-frequency hearing loss, so they cater to them. One of the worst examples I EVER heard was the Hovland exhibit at the 1999 CES. Drove me out of the room. A year later, their setup sounded totally different. Guess someone complained.

>is it true you don't favor interstage transformer coupling?

Where'd you get that idea? If you can get good interstage transformers, they can work miracles, esp. in amps using low mu triodes.
Good luck finding good ones, bub. Without paying insulting prices for old ones, that is. Your best bet might be to talk Dennis Hoyer into making something for you--he's a treasure trove of otherwise-forgotten winding tricks.