I used to have a pair of the HPs run in mono config. A few other input tubes you may want to consider are the RCA 5814 black plates, GE 5814s, or if you want a brighter sound try some RCA 12AU7 clear tops. All are fairly easy to find on the NOS or used market.
the other area you may want to consider is replacing that 0.1uf white cap on each side (used to add filtering to the B+ for the input tubes) with a Miflex copper foil or a Jupiter copper foil cap. Same would apply to the coupling caps.