Emile hello,
I will not be a regular contributor here, but I want to respond to your measured observations (thank you) about our recently announced card and in doing so deal with points raised in a less measured fashion by some other contributors.
It shares little electronic design similarities
Indeed.
Beyond the USB host controller selection there little in common.
For those that may not easily see the differences:
OAudio RealStream Clock system used.
Two USB ports offering users differing configuration possibilities.
Rear blade user control system.
12 LDOs Vs 6, not that important as and of itself but indicative of different design decisions in many locations.
To accommodate all this I believe the card is somewhat physically larger.
It's mainly the looks that have been copied.
Our philosophy is that form should follow function, What you see is the in house style of all of our other music server components.
Developing these devices to Supreme levels of audio performance takes time. I believe 2000 hours is your figure for the development which I agree with. The cards have therefore been been developed separately in parallel with each other. I certainly don't remember sending you our 3d renders in early autumn last year ;-). We were ready to announce our card in January but decided not to share images until other cards due to be announced had committed to production.
Best regards,
OAudio.