Design is a rip off from Grados headphones.
They are open headphones (at least they look like it, hard to see). Apart from that, I can't see much similarity. And since Grados are famous for being the absolute best headphones to cope with the very limited power of an iPod or iPhone, and this design makes this unnecessary, I doubt there is much similarity internally.
It sends the digital signal out to the headphones which do their own converting rather than using the iphones convertors, in theory it should be better quality.
Exactly. You would expect that a company building expensive headphones that are meant for people willing to pay lots of money for the best possible sound would use better parts than a company building things for everyone.
On top of that, you could build noise cancelling headphones that take their energy supply from the iPhone, not from a battery.
1) millions of people buy accessories that *only* work w/ their idevices all the time.
2) the idea of an adapter never crossed your mind, huh?
3) for enthusiasts interested in a DAC or amp, the weight of it is not their primary concern.
Just saying: With an adaptor, these headphones would probably "work" like any headphones, but you wouldn't get the improved sound quality. If anyone does sound quality benchmarks, it would be interested to see where these headphones are in quality connected to line out, and connected to Lightning.
Will there be another way to get digital signal out of the iPhone/iPad? Line out signal at least like there was with the old 30 pin connectors?
Of course. How do you think are people listening to music on their iPhones/iPads right now? There's a headphone jack, and that's unlikely to disappear soon, because that's what all the kids with $5 ear phones need.
Get ready boys and girls. Apple will ditch the audio jack soon and you will be forced to buy proprietary headphones, or use the adapter they will sell. It will be bulky, and expensive. You will hate it and succumb :/
Nonsense (see above).