It sounds crazy to the uninitiated because the planar drive mechanism is better on paper and a lot of people seem to expect cool-looking, exotic tech and big price tags to go hand-in-hand with superior performance. But the proof is in the pudding. Dynamics tend to be more resolving for whatever reason. I'm not a big believer in Marv's crazy idea that the tension kills resolution, but there's gotta be some reason they have that sound.

I may be incorrect, but from what I understand, the planar membrane is driven from traces outward, and there is a lot of trace area compared to the voice coil. For planars, this could account for the bass (less break up, since more membrane area is directly moved) and clarity (similar reasons, and frequencies are evolved from the large area of the traces). Speed is arguable. The voice coil takes up less area in the membrane proportionally than a planar driver, so the sound is evolved only from a ring, which also simulates a point source of sound. So although the sound may be less clear in the sense of say being from many areas in the driver and reinforcing itself a la chorus (planar), you get the clarity and resolution of one area/ring of the driver a la a solo (voice coil), and thus better hear the timbre, or with headphones, resolution.

So are planars like anti-aliased images vs true resolution of voice coils (more polygons/pixels)?

Honest question for you.  What, if any, dynamics do this besides Senns?  It's pretty much always the HD600/650/800 mentioned around here.

In hindsight I should have just said nothing about CAL or MA100, because this seems to cause confusion.