At present, I am experimenting to see if I can omit the last audio stage. There seems to be plenty of spare audio. Being a DSB design, it is inherently 3dB down in sensitivity, but that has not been an issue hitherto.
See https://sites.google.com/view/g3xbm4/home/hf-mf-and-lf/homebrew/10ft8r-rx.