[Claritas]

Huh? Where the hell are you reading my prior post as an excuse. 

I said I liked my Pm1. Can't make it more clear than that. The accusation that it 'might'  be defective is being made by other PM1 owners. 

I haven't heard any other Pm1 to make that determination side by side for myself. 

But to make sure, I said I will look into sending it back for an inspection.

I meant that it will be used as an excuse to dismiss impressions of your Oppo and reviews based on it. I can just see it.

Edit: That's precisely what happened when Tyll first measured and commented on K812.

 

[swspiers]

I meant that it will be used as an excuse to dismiss impressions of your Oppo and reviews based on it. I can just see it.

 

[Oregonian]

The one purrin heard and ultrabike took measurements of is mine. I was one of the beta users and I am not sure it's a defective unit or not

I like the Oppo. It has no one amazing stand out quality but it doesn't have a terrible Anomaly to it either, at least to my ears. I don't know what to say other than I will check in with Oppo to do an inspection on my PM1 when I get them back.
Although it is making the rounds to about 5 folks for a week each as part of a loaner program.

Any possibility of joining this loaner program?  I'd pay a small entry fee if needed.

 

[TMRaven]

The loaner program wasn't even part of this site.

 

[MattTCG]

 
Any possibility of joining this loaner program?  I'd pay a small entry fee if needed.

 
Just send Oppo $1100 and they'll give you a 30 day loan. 

 

[cute]

 

  Well I wouldn't even say that.  He calls HD800 a facetweeter...

 
'tis true. I've updated my sig/profile to reflect that I do run Anax mods on the HD800 to tame the brightness and hard glare of the HD800. Even then, I still find it bright.
 
I do want to clarify that frequency response is only but one aspect; and even then, I do not find the PM-1's frequency response objectionable. To put things in perspective, I find the FR, particularly the treble, of Grados, SRH-1440, T1, etc. to be unbearable.
 
While I do prefer a neutralish response (by this I mean flat in the bass with a slow roll-off / slight downward tilt starting from 150Hz up to 20kHz where it's about -6db), I find that I can live with a wide latitude of tonal balance as long as there are not any sharp peaks in the upper midrange to lower-treble. The PM-1's overall tonal balance and lack of treble peaks easily meets my requirements, with two minor concerns that the upper midrange is too scooped out and the last octave is missing. Subjectively, the PM-1 is slightly too laid back, too polite, too forgiving. Keeping in mind that nothing is perfect, this is preferable to nasty treble peaks.
 
Where the PM-1 truly fails for me is not frequency response, but rather its subjective lack of clarity and resolving ability compared to other headphones of similar price. The PM-1 simply does not sound "hifi", and as I mentioned previously, it does not scale well with more capable upstream gear. This is typically indicative of high distortion over a crucial area of the audio band. The PM-1's "low-fi"-ish quality, for lack of a better term reminds me of the SRH-1840, but in much more limited way.
 
So I hear something. Now what I want to do next is confirm with objective data. So far we have two sets of measurements (ultrabike's and Brent's @about.com) indicating highish distortion > ~2-6% around 200-300Hz. Yes, these measurements are taken at 90db SPL which is extremely loud, but I have been able to correlate 90db SPL distortion tests with my subjective experience. I'm pretty confident in saying that distortion approaching 1% could be audible, and anything over 1% is definitely audible and probably deleterious (with certain exceptions - or understanding that distortion in the bass will be expected). Go going back to that distortion bump, I ask could that measurement anomaly account partially for what I am hearing? I can't be sure, but I believe it probably is.
 
Now let's compare to the PM-1 the HD650 subjectively. The sub-low bass of the PM-1 sounds better than the HD600. It's more controlled and less wooly. The midrange and treble of the PM-1, although muted compared to the HD650, sounds smoother and faster. However the fundamentals region of the PM-1 sounds like it has this veil, mud, lack of clarity, low quality feel to it. It's difficult to describe. The best way for me to say it is that it sounds like poo or goo.
 
Now it is possible that a lot of people will really like the PM-1? Of course! The PM-1 has many good qualities. But the PM-1 also has some poor qualities which happen to be showstopper issues for me. My intent was never to tell the current appreciators of the PM-1 that they had bad taste in headphones, but rather to inform people who are considering the PM-1 of the things it doesn't do so well, especially in comparison to other similarly or lower priced headphones available.

 
Is there another headphone that you can think of/heard, that the PM-1 compares to?
 
Can you list some examples/impressions of some of the tracks you heard, that you think sounded like poo?  So some of us can listen to them, and decide?  This is an impression thread and moderators have said that it would be helpful to list the music and the setup that you based your impression on!

 

[MattTCG]

The hp that the pm-1 reminds me of the most is the hd650. The pm-1 offers more speed and decay especially in the mids. 

 

[sachu]

 
Any possibility of joining this loaner program?  I'd pay a small entry fee if needed.

Hit me up in about 6-7 weeks time. It should make its way back over to me. I am in your neck of the woods. 

 

[JML]

Tone Audio has a PM-1 review at http://www.tonepublications.com/magazine/issue-63/.  Brief positive mention of the HA-1, but a review will be in the next issue.

 

[cute]

Has anyone taken advantage of the 30 day return policy thus far?

 

[MattTCG]

Mine went back yesterday. 

 

[moodyrn]

Wow! I was going to hit you up for an audition in the near future.

 

[cute]

  Mine went back yesterday. 

 
Are you considering an alternative?  What was the deciding factor for you?

 

[MattTCG]

I like them just fine. I'll likely buy the pm-2 this summer. 

   
Are you considering an alternative?  What was the deciding factor for you?

 
I've got enough in my pp account that I might go all in on the lcd-3. 
 

 

[cute]

  I like them just fine. I'll likely buy the pm-2 this summer. 

   
Are you considering an alternative?  What was the deciding factor for you?

 
I've got enough in my pp account that I might go all in on the lcd-3. 
 

 
I'm going the same route maybe the PM-2, I have the HE-560, tops the PM-1.  I just purchased the Alpha Dog, for the second time, sold the first one for the PM-1.  Peter Bradstock put me on the the Alpha Dog....he said that with a quality recable, instead of the Canare stock cable, the Alpha Dog sounds very close to the LCD-3.  He has the LCD-3 and the recabled Alpha Dog.  I have several detachable cables modded with mini xlr's that I used on the Alpha Dog.  The Alpha Dog loves power, I ran it, (and the HE-560) off of my Denon 4800 AVR speaker taps and it scales very well with the cable as well.  Sorry Oppo, liked the PM-1, but not at the price, don't need a fancy box. sound was good though.