Progress report on LessLoss Firewall module production

Dear customers,

The Firewall module pre-order arrangement is proving very attractive amongst first-time buyers, not only those who are upgrading. Thank you for following this "kickstarter" type project and especially to all those participating. Cumulatively, you've placed a lot of trust in LessLoss and we'll be sure to deliver and to satisfy your need for better sound quality.

Report on past few days

An update on our past few days. We've been busy customizing a series of Oyaide C-079. Here are some snapshots from the workshop.





Details about what we're actually doing

We completely disassemble them and extract the polished, gold plated electrical contacts. These contacts act as springs when inserted into an IEC inlet, and not only ensure a good electrical contact, but also grip and hold the assembly in place. We have found that we can strengthen the contact grip by introducing specially chosen small pieces of elastic rubber on the outside of each of the three contact clips. When we re-assemble the entire plug with these in place, we can feel the improved grip strength when the connector is plugged in. There's a balance between too tight (impractical to use!) and too loose (why bother?). We like to get this balance just right for maximum effect and maximum ease of use. As a result, sonic control is better, as more of the soft gold makes direct contact with the contact pins on the inlet, and there is less micro-vibration. Because the grip is tighter, this type of connection more resembles the excellent junctions made when crimping. This is the exact same modification we make in all of our DFPC Reference power cables.





Hey, it's getting pretty crowded in here!

With the inrush of orders as we have experienced after announcing the excellent pre-order price reduction on the new generation Firewall module, we immediately took to preparing ourselves for their production. These short umbilicals use a colorless outer sheath because all color agents affect the sound quality to some extent. Seeking pure neutrality requires taking everything one can into account. We will cover this with a darker robust outer braid (pictures of this are on the Firewall Module page here).









Meanwhile, back at the milling station

At the same time, we're also working on scaling up the oakwood milling operation. Now that we bought some very high performance mill cutting tools to work with and have worked out the intricacies involved with speed vs. strategy vs. results, one-off enclosures of good quality are pretty much achievable "with our eyes closed" now, so it's time to go for batches of twenty in a row. It's like learning a new passage of music. Once you have a passage down, you can connect it with the next and previous ones. Then eventually we'll do a row of 20 times some undetermined number and feed the robot a LOT of proper electricity. (No, we are not applying LessLoss power conditioning to the mill, but maybe we should be?)

Thank you once again for your participation and support,

More soon!