Spiug31

http://www.headphone.com/products/headphones/ will give a very limited introduction to various types/uses of headphones. Headphone design is a massive area. There is a nice disassembly sequence of one pair at http://apuresound.com/hdsennmod.html Contact the retailers directly or phone the regional distributors and ask them about their sales. p.s. If you're not strapped for cash go out and buy some headphones similar to the design your aiming at and see what they are made of

I've just got a reply from FPE: so thickness wise I see no problem , I'm now waiting to gauge a Xhadow gender module and find out exactly what will be required. :twiddling_thumbs: p.s. the reply was fast and freindly, I can see why they frequently get recommended

I find my PL750 bright as well, recabling improved the phone generally but it is still too bright for me. I was lucky enough to get a stock K340 for a good price and after a little light modding am very, very much more attached to this (even when it's being inadequately driven by my minidac) than to my 750's. I did a little opamp rolling (when I had my supermacro and supermini) and for me the the PL750 was still to bright for my enjoyment. The harshness of my 750's subsided somewhat after 350-500 hours but they are still bright after 1200+ hours. (supermacro v3, supermini v3, supermini v3 updated) - You can see a list of the opamps I rolled at http://www.fixup.net/talk/topic.asp?TOPIC_ID=1741 Try to pick up a pair of good used phones, so you likely won't lose much money when you come to sell them.

http://astro.neutral.org/anodise.shtml

I've put an e-mail off to [email protected] + [email protected] and will report what they say.

The software is reasonably easy to use , I do see what you meant about the price but I'll keep it as an option for consideration

Yes I had considered that 4mm Al might not be resilient enough. I was hoping that the thin brass collar on the gender module plus the threaded 4mm might be enough to cope with insertion forces (with a nut on the panel's reverse side handling the XLR socket extraction forces). As a result of doubts though I'd also considered contacting hifi2000 to see about them custom machining one of their 10mm front panels for the purpose. I hadn't known of emachineshop.com, the software is less intuitive for me but certainly their abilities to fabricate look good. I'll see if I can learn how to work the software, thankyou for the tip.

I've got a pair of Xhadow connectors ordered, will measure them and see if FPE is able to do a thread of the required gauge on a large enough hole for the gender modules. Aside from FPE (schaeffer-ag) and hifi2000 are any other companies recommended for this type of thing ?

That's lovely

luvdunhill, I've no real mind for business and it's still early days but I'll pm you to discuss it.

playing Soul Calibur as chewie armed with a naginata would be fun

I'll work out those options once I've measured the gender modules. Worst case scenario is several years from now I'll sell the amp and that person buying will get a great deal on the connectors . That I can live with

A slight bonus is if I do change amp I could keep these connectors with me for the next one

This'll be for a beta22, I don't intend upgrading amps beyond this so the bells and whistles at least to me can be justified

The materials are greatly different. teflon, OFC copper, pure silver and a strong grip for the Xhadow - delrin, copper alloy, gold (and I suspect less of a firm grip) for Vampire - phosphor bronze, teflon and gold for Furutech. Only the Xhadow design seems to use pure copper and teflon with a strong contact grip. I hadn't realised FPE did threaded holes, thanks for the tip Cost seems low, design program intuitive and I can get the panel shipped to me so I can be sure it fits Little projects like this help me keep my mind agile

Anyone willing to make a Xhadow XLR chassis mount for me ? I am thinking of an aluminium plate (the depth of a gender modules' thread), A threaded tunnel in its? centre to accept the gender module and two or more bolt/screw holes near the edge to allow attachment to a chassis. a disassembled XLR connector is shown http://www.takefiveaudio.com/mall/images/zoom/601_2.jpg the shiny piece with the white core and gold screws in the back of it is a gender module. If anyone spots a design flaw please point it out. I?ve e-mailed Chris Sommovigo at Xhadow and the edited highlights of his reply were : I?d like to get 4 of these mounts so I can have Xhadow XLR connectors for the balanced input and balanced headphone output of an amp. The reason I am thinking of Aluminium is that it's non-magnetic, brass or something other with this characteristic and enough strength for purpose could also be acceptable. I am holding off buying the Xhadow connectors until I know where (which tax zone) I need to send the connectors for proof of concept. From what I can gather the bore for the gender module looks likely to be between 16mm-19mm, I am unsure of its' thread count or pitch. All help appreciated and constructive criticism too

Any impressions yet ?

Your not missing much, facebook ain't really set-up as a forum for navigating many in-depth , diverse and long threads. Since the folk frequenting the HF facebook are resident on HF there are very, very few real posts on the facebook side.

I think the rule applies to the Head-fi page on facebook as well. I was on there when head-fi was down and put in a post that I'd been surviving on visiting other sites, I named head-case and rockgrotto as the sites. Checking back later I noticed that my post had vanished p.s. Head-case is now my favourite audiophile website it seems much more relaxed and less prone to overhype than head-fi ever was

the beginning of the UK winter snow

You've got me imagining you all in monks habits

my balanced Proline 750's do not sound good from my minidac's xlr out's, they sound, just ok from its 1/4" but sound better from my little technics speaker amp. My modded K340's sound quite fun from my minidac's 1/4"

I couldn't find a gloating smilie so here is instead Alchohal is one of the many things that makes my condition worse :'(

Happy New Year everyone and best wishes for what lies ahead.