i'm guessing that was made as an extrusion because they only have 1 internal hole to keep cost down. by far the greatest cost would be the die, about $1-1.5k
wikipedia: The term "bowl" originated from the Rose Bowl Stadium, site of the first post-season college football games. The Rose Bowl stadium takes its name and bowl-shaped design from the Yale Bowl, the prototype of many football stadiums in the United States.
What is the cost to do it wire EDM? Looks perfect for a small extrusion which would then be cut to length. Or maybe laser cut out of a giant sheet if they do 1/4" thick aluminum
I have the circuit boards ready, and the raw enclosures were finished today -- they just have to be sent off to be made pretty, so probably 4-6 more weeks
I think they're just a good idea for isolating the headphone amp from any amps/receivers that are left permanently connected to the pre-out. Some of them will short their inputs when another input is selected or the power is turned off.
I think Wadia is very capable of designing a headphone amp Headphone outs on the DACs like Benchmark, Lavry, never get any credibility on Head-Fi though. Maybe these companies care more about Head-Fi than they like to say they do