I think I understand what you mean. The Oppo looks to me like the KEF M500 in some ways, as though it were the simplest possible industrial design to make in large quantities. Not quite like the original look of the B&W P5 for example. Hopefully that will not be the case, since Oppo has the advantage of listening to all of the other famous ortho headphones to make sure their headphone is even better.
They institute the word "Appreciation" onto all the pre-release headphone threads . I think they do this to encourage the Mfgs. to send them "bulletins" on release dates before it becomes more public . I wouldn't read too much into that.
I don't know how many of you are that familiar w/ Planar Magnetic headphones but they are quite a bit more
transparent sounding than just about any other HP technology available . I would say they are even a little more transparent then that expensive German HP that was being called the best in "the World" for a while. There are 2 issues that most of the Planars have in common (which I found are'nt that hard to correct) but are deal breakers for many. There is a lot of excitement over the Oppo HPs as they have specifically addressed
These 2 issues. As a "pedigree" Planars tend to be a bit heavy & are not nearly as efficient as most other HPs-
For most other headphone types these would be considered expensive. For Planar HPs these are "mid priced".
If you're an Audiophile who is'nt able to use loudspeakers for their main playback use but are looking for a
high quality listening source these really that outrageously priced in that perspective. That is of course if they can "deliver the goods" as some of there higher priced brethren can.
Oops ! When I was talking about how transparent Planars can sound I was talking about my Hifiman HE 6s I'm currently using. (If the Oppo is'nt up to this standard I don't want people trying to hunt me down; though
preliminary reports have been fairly positive). Given how exceptional my HE 6s are sounding at this moment
I think I might be spending some unecessary "audio money" on a different set of "cans"