About this mod vs. Maglite - if we consider modding maglite with XML there is this excellent mod made by jayrob on CPF, which I like very much. What I want to say is that to $15 incan maglite you have to add price of all other parts needed to mod, which results in
* Complete modified XM-L T6 Maglite - $129 (not including batteries or battery voltage monitor) Or add $25 for the Rebel build... (also not including battery holders)
Now C88 costs $45 with shipping, XM-L, good driver, pretty good press-fit heatsink which is able to divert heat from emitter well, and as was said in reviews, it is very nice looking, well build, feels good in hand, good mass for heatsinking, good beam... and personally I really like its design - simple and elegant. With extension tube attached it still has decent look, not very long (a lot of this is matter of taste of course)
Runtimes are better with maglite and two 5000mAh capacity 32600's, it's different category - but C88 with 6AA need not to be ashamed , it'll hold the same lumen output as good, just shorter - this is how I think about it
It is true that those battery holders have a higher resistance, but with freshly charged eneloops the default one shipped with Cyclone can give around 2amps at tailcap. As with parallel setup the overall resistance will be lower and max. current will be 1.4amp/cell - I think they will do okay as they are. But fixing them with a little solder or better springs would help to hold voltage¤t even longer. Or one can build its own 3s2p holder, no problem with that.
mio