Well I've been enjoying my Aikido for a few days now, it really turned out well I think.
I wanted to wait before I posted again to make sure everything was working right, hehe. Its dead silent with absolutely zero hum which makes me happy, also no turn on/off popping stuff going on either.
I made some changes from how I first put it together, I had originally used some LD1085s for the output buffers but something just didn't seem right with them, my HD580s sounded "ok" but my other low impedance cans sounded really awful. I picked up some LM317s and used those instead and it totally changed the way it sounds, so so much better, now all my cans sound great with this amp.
I also was using some k42y-2 1uf caps at c12 and c13, I just so happened to stop by my local surplus store today and found a box of Wima MKP10 1uf 160v caps for $0.19 each so I grabbed all that they had and put those in c12 and c13 and noticed more improvement, everything sounds "faster" somehow. I can't wait until my Blackgates get here to see if I can get even more improvement, they should be here this week
For tubes I'm using an NOS quad of GE branded 6GM8's which I believe are rebranded amperex, seem to be pretty nice. I'm waiting on a quad of NOS Siemens tubes to come from England so I can try rolling those in too.
I also found some other interesting tubes at the surplus store today since I noticed they had a fresh box out on the shelf, found 2 nice 12BH7A, a Realistic 12BH7A GT with goldish looking pins, an RCA 6CG7 and an ECL84. Not bad for 2 bucks each.