I received the PM3's earlier today. What do I think? Well... I don't think very highly of them. I was running them from my Marantz PM5005, which sounds great with my Hifiman He400i and Grado SR80. These headphones sounded harsh, lacked fidelity, lacked resolution, and lacked soundstage. It sounded like all the instruments and vocals were piled on top of eachother.
I listened to Diana Krall @ 24/192 8000kbps and Lorde at 24/96 4000kbps and I was disappointed severely. Diana Krall's "Hit that Jive Jack" was particularly painful on these headphones. On my Kef Q300's and on my other headphones, I can clearly hear a sound stage where Diana Krall is in the middle and two male vocalists are on either side of her. On the Oppos I couldn't even HEAR the second male vocalist and the first one sounded like he was just jammed in there with Diana Krall, as if both were singing into the same microfone 6 inches away from eachother.
I am so so so disappointed with these headphones. I'm actually quite upset that now I have to pay shipping to the next guy after spending all of 15 minutes with these painful-to-listen-to headphones. I'm not putting them on again. I was rather disgusted with the sound. Tomorrow my audiophile friend will be around and I'll have him listen to them. We have similar tastes so I think he'll be disgusted too.
Oh and to add insult to injury, these are the most uncomfortable over ear cans I have ever had on my head. Is Oppo serious with these ear pads? I have small ears for a man and the ear pad was literally sitting ON my ears, not around them. Garbage.
I have heard $140 headphones that absolutely trample these Oppos in imaging and fidelity, IMHO. At $500+ Canadian these are a complete rip off in my opinion. I would recommend that someone jump off a cliff before I'd recommend that they buy Oppo PM3's.
(Sorry Jiffy Squid)
I'm reading through the thread and seeing that a lot of you guys actually like these?? I find the character of the sound unbearable.