Mine are built with the boards attached directly to the sinks and I adjust them from the top. The boards you are using are different from mine though and I'm not sure what version was used on the groupbuy...
That has its own issues due to the proximity to the output socket and its wiring. Much harder to shield that with all the extra capacitance the shield would generate. It should be clear now just how much engineering went into the KGSSHV mini...
Yeah, the Stax thread over there is just an endless stream of bullshit. Most of the advise given is inaccurate or just flat out false. Stupidity is the new norm....
Ahhh saw the batteries. I bet that is the noise you are hearing, throw some Xicon's in there and it should work just fine. Low noise maybe but not Carbon levels of utter dead silence. Just can't be done with that T2 circuit.
The SRD-7 never shipped with that crappy connector and velour pads on Stax are pretty high on the stupid scale. Go read a bit about how an infinite baffle works on dipoles...
I really don't think we're done discussing the sheer stupidity that new tubes somehow "break" the amp. That is up there on the stupid scale with burn in and the cable mania. Based on actual measurements the new small signal tubes are often an order of magnitude better than the true NOS stuff. Let's not get into the ebay garbage either where you have no way to know in what state the tubes truly are. With power tubes things are not as clear as they are naturally built down to a price compared to something built in the 50's. Still the good new stuff isn't bad by any means.
I really don't see any other reason why the transformer would suddenly start to misbehave unless it is simply failing. I take it is set to the correct voltage and not say a 100V unit plugged into 117V or something like that? Polarity of the mains can also be a factor if the plug is reversible.
It didn't have plug in cards but there were PCB's on all four walls of the chassis plus the batteries were located in tall heatsinked modules that stood off from the main PCB.
I do it much the same way. By hand with a power drill with good speed control and a low torque setting. I do snap one every now and then but then again... I do a lot of this.