Looking forward to starting the kit shortly - sounds like I should build in the "Christmas" mod straight away. Any problem with that?

Hmm,

Since the cap mod is so very inexpensive, and I bet Steve and crew probably experimented with the straight wire vs the series cap; that out of trust to Decware's findings, I'd personally go with the cap mod.

You could get a pair of two suitable Xicon metallized film caps, .1/600v, for around a buck a pair from Triode Electronics, which are small and would easily fit between the other components in there.

The mod has worked freakin MIRACLES on my SE84CS: no ifs or maybe's. I also have a friend on the forum here that would make similar comments about the mod who has long been accustomed to running his SE84C with boutique EL84's (where the suppressor is internally connected to the cathode which is kind of similar to the straight wire connected mode with the SV83).

Although I've been too lazy to do it (having too much fun just listening), it seems like it would be easiest to compare the straight wire to the cap if you ALREADY had the cap installed.

If one wanted to be really aggressive about comparing to a straight wire, one could get some cheesy Radio Shack alligator clip test leads and short out the cap with a test lead for kicks, to see. Or, before permanently soldering, just try bridging the pins with a shorting test lead, and then bridge the pins with the cap between two test leads for comparison.

It goes without saying you should bleed the power supply caps each time before fussing around in there if you do all the A/B-ing (as you know, the voltages in there can be quite breath taking).

I'm about to try this same mod with some triode strapped EL34's (old refurbished ST70) where the suppressors have in the past always been wired to the cathodes. This will answer the question for me, albeit somewhat obliquely.

Cheers,
Karl