So, yeah, I'm back with impressions. Take into account that I in no way see myself as an expert. My knowledge is pretty basic, I just enjoy music.
I started out with the Oppo PM-3, they were surprisingly light. Pretty comfortable, I don't see myself having any problems in that department. They felt pretty solid in the hand and the only real complaint I have with the build is the cable. It felt really flimsy and cheap.
I started listening and wasn't surprised. These were the best closed headphones I've heard. With that said, I haven't really heard a closed headphone that's considered "good", in this price range.
The most expensive one I've heard before this was the Sennheiser Momentum Wireless, which I returned because I didn't like the sound of them. (I thought they were too dark and bassy)
However, I wasn't that impressed by the PM-3's, they were good, sure, but they weren't spectacular. They have a slight V-shape to them, strong bass, pretty dark sounding but with a pretty sharp top. I wanted to raise the volume a bit to get more of a feel for that hard hitting bass, it was fun, but I couldn't stand the vocals because they became too sharp.
Then the EL-8's came in through the door. He told me that they arrived yesterday and I got them straight out of the box so they had 0 burn in whereas the Oppos had been on for 48 hours for burn in. I took the closed version first since that's the one I'm interested in because I need the isolation. My god these are sturdy. They pack some heft but that just left a luxorious feeling when in the hand and during my session on about 35 minutes, I didn't notice any discomfort at all. They were much more comfortable than the Oppos, but they got a bit warm after a while, that didn't happen with the Oppos, even though I didn't listen to the Oppos for the same amount of time so don't quote me on that.
The pads are just so big and soft, so I guess it's only logical that they get hotter and are more comfortable than the Oppos.
One thing that I just want to mention is the feeling when you swivel the cups, it's soooo smooth, it feels insanely well built, I was blown away by the quality of these cans. But then I remembered the post where someone posted the plastic around the connectors had fallen off, and I can totally see that happening, it seems a bit cheap in comparison to the rest of the headphone that just screams quality. Also, the connectors are really loose, not sure if this is a problem or not, but the cables felt like they could almost fall out.
Well, onto the sound. I was a bit disappointed at first. The vocals are really thin or something, it sounded really strange, not sure how to describe it.
However, the more instruments, the better. The instruments sound absolutely fantastic and on a few songs I were simply blown away. These are better than the Oppos in my opinion. It feels like the Oppos were safer, they sound decent with everything. The EL-8C sounded strange with some music, like acoustic music with focus on the vocals but amazing with other music, like instrumentals and music with a bit more stuff going on. The bass is much leaner than the Oppos and I prefer it this way. It doesn't have that V-shaped sound. To me it sounds neutral.
I noticed that I kept missing bass in some songs, but when there was supposed to be bass, it hit pretty hard and fast. These are extremely fast, there's no other way to put it.
The El-8 didn't give me a bass that I could feel on like, the lower notes on a piano, where as the Oppos bass could be felt everywhere, that's not to say that it was bloated and overly bassy, it just had a little emphasis on the bass. I think the EL-8's bass is a bit more controlled and, like I said, neutral.
I'm still on the fence. The EL-8's were very good in my opinion, but that thinned out vocal left me with a bit of a sour taste. I think I would get used to it and learn to love every aspect of them, but I can't say for sure. I kind of want to buy them just based on the comfort, feel and design, they are just too gorgeous.. But that would of course be stupid. I'm kind of hoping some burn in would give them a bit darker tone in the vocal mid area.
The Oppos are out of the picture, they feel cheap in comparison(unfair comparison maybe, but still), even if they were okay sounding, I just know that I would beat myself up over going for the Oppos just because they're a bit cheaper.
Regarding isolation, the EL-8 felt more isolating because they're huge. But I was in a relatively quiet room so both of them let no sound in. I can't really comment on this and leakage is hard to test on your own so I have no idea how they are in that area.
As a closer I also tried the open version of the EL-8 and while they sounded better than the closed version (for obvious reasons) they didn't sound better than my HD700, in my opinion, and that's all I wanted to know. (They were also straight out of the box, so no burn in, and I only listened for about 10 minutes to the open back.)
English is not my native tongue so don't hold any mistakes against me. If I missed anything or you have further questions, just ask and I'll do my best to try to answer them.
