So do we know when the first batch will be ready if I order one right now?
Our fabricators are on track to deliver by the end of this month (28-29th). We'll ship within 24 hours.
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About how much will it run? If this is possible, it may still be worth it for me.
Parts, labor, and return shipping for gain modification would total about $15. Note that going from 3.5x to 2.5x is about a -3dB change, which is fairly small. I point this out because we're seeing similar concerns from our O2 customers, and the default gain is already 2.5 there.
I didn't want to move from an analog to a digital pot in c421, but the trend over the past few years has been towards lower impedance, higher sensitivity headphones and these increasingly do not pair well with analog pots assuming low listening levels. To achieve excellent channel balance in such setups, one must either must forgo line-level input (i.e., reduce source volume), use a large potentiometer or stepped attenuator (not portable friendly), or go for a device with a digital pot (usually lower fidelity).
Venturing off topic. Lowering gain will help slightly, but forgoing an LOD is the best fix *if* the headphone output of your source isn't too bad. Again, this is a non-issue with larger cans.