That is of the major problems with that forum.
We want you to donate money "to help keep the site running" but we don't care what you think.
Complain about the forum and we will delete your thread.... complain about it enough times and we will ban you.
Pretty absurd isn't it?
A quick froogle check suggest's $179 is about the average price for the Er4P.
A couple of examples of sites that have the same or lower prices are:
http://www.erwincomputers.com/etreerer4min.html
http://www.provantage.com/er-4p-earphones~22099657.htm
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=368906&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation
Primarily for Heat dissipation but it's also an attempt to keep their stray inductance from affecting the rest of the circuit.
Could he have put that switch in a worse spot?
I swear the switcher for the heaters looks exactly like an off the shelf unit.
It is a pretty inspirational story.
There was a "real sports" segment about this father, son combo back in August of 05
http://www.hbo.com/realsports/stories/2005/episode.101.s2.html
B&H photo has them in stock.
http://www.bhphotovideo.com/bnh/controller/home?O=productlist&A=details&Q=&sku=313962&is=REG&addedTroughType=categoryNavigation
There are several DIY USB DACs out there.
USB DAC-201
http://www.audiodiylab.com/modules/news/article.php?storyid=72
Haggerman chime:
http://www.hagtech.com/chime.html
Haggerman HagUSB:
http://www.hagtech.com/hagusb.html
Scott Nixon's USB Dackit:
http://www.scott-nixon.com/dac.htm
Of course the Alien DAC:
http://www.myexposition.com/diy/usbdac/overview.html
And a few others I am forgetting.
As far as how good the Alien DAC is:
It's not something you would use to drive headphones directly but other then that it's pretty OK.
I would venture to guess they are pivot points that allow the headband to be rotated so they could be used as behind the head or conventional headphones but......