[kenman345]

   
Thanks for posting this!
 
I almost bought that cable to try with my PM-3 but didn't know the 1A pinout. Even contacted Sony but couldn't get an answer.
 
You saved me a big headache.

I hit the jackpot. These are confirmed to work with the PM-3's as far as I can tell. Basically, the confirmation comes from someone else and not first hand experience by me. That being said, i ordered 3 of them in preparation.

http://www.lunashops.com/goods.php?id=4088
 

 

[zilch0md]

  I've used the PM-3 with the HA-2 and I personally find it to be a very strong combination. More thoughts in my PM-3 review in my sig. hope its helpful! cheers

 
I vigorously agree, and I even like my HD800 driven by the HA-2 - on low gain, no less.  PM-3 for noisy environments.  HD800 for quiet environments.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

  I hit the jackpot. These are confirmed to work with the PM-3's as far as I can tell. Basically, the confirmation comes from someone else and not first hand experience by me. That being said, i ordered 3 of them in preparation.

http://www.lunashops.com/goods.php?id=4088
 

Please keep us informed, what I found with metal connectors with the slightest of weight is they're not staying in the jack of the PM3s even with a step-down plug. You'll most likely need to go with a plastic version of this.

 

[kenman345]

 
Please keep us informed, what I found with metal connectors with the slightest of weight is they're not staying in the jack of the PM3s even with a step-down plug. You'll most likely need to go with a plastic version of this.

If that's the case I might use a little Sugru or something else to replace the barrel with something lighter. 
 
I will keep everyone informed as I get them

 

[PerfectHiFi]

Thanks.

You know what...I think that I will try the HA-2.

You will be very happy with this pair. The PM-3 sounds already very good with iPhone/iPad/iPod, but it sounds absolutely GREAT on the HA-2, when using digital connection (USB) port. I tested the pair (FLAC format) with Eric Clapton's Unplugged (Acoustic guitar and male voice), Diana Krall's Love Scenes (Piano, female voice, bass), Tori Amos (Piano and female voice), Miles Davis Kind of Blue (Trumpet), Steven Wilson's Hand cannot erease and Pink Floyd's Wall (Experimental), also with Redemption's Snowfall on a Judgment Day, Tool's 10'000 days and Evergrey's Monday Morning Apocalypse (Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock) , and, and, and much more. These spectacular products PM-3 and HA-1 from OPPO sound as good as my HA-1 paired with HD800 with any kind of genre ( I did not test Classical, exept Deep Purple with Philharmonic Orchestra in MP3)! Latter pair has a more "open space" or "wide stage", but this is subjective feeling, perhaps because of different (open vs. closed) design of the HD800. Conclusion: I fell in love with my three OPPO products. Have fun!

 

[Kon Peki]

I received my PM-3 yesterday, and they are my favorite headphones yet, combining the comfort, neutrality, and light weight of my HD600, the clarity and bass extension of my HE-400, the isolation of my DT770, and the good looks and easy driveability of my V-MODA XS.  One noteworthy point is that I am understanding song lyrics for the first time on songs that I've heard countless times before.  These are really magical headphones.

 

[good sound]

 

Thanks.

You know what...I think that I will try the HA-2.

You will be very happy with this pair. The PM-3 sounds already very good with iPhone/iPad/iPod, but it sounds absolutely GREAT on the HA-2, when using digital connection (USB) port. I tested the pair (FLAC format) with Eric Clapton's Unplugged (Acoustic guitar and male voice), Diana Krall's Love Scenes (Piano, female voice, bass), Tori Amos (Piano and female voice), Miles Davis Kind of Blue (Trumpet), Steven Wilson's Hand cannot erease and Pink Floyd's Wall (Experimental), also with Redemption's Snowfall on a Judgment Day, Tool's 10'000 days and Evergrey's Monday Morning Apocalypse (Heavy Metal, Progressive Rock) , and, and, and much more. These spectacular products PM-3 and HA-1 from OPPO sound as good as my HA-1 paired with HD800 with any kind of genre ( I did not test Classical, exept Deep Purple with Philharmonic Orchestra in MP3)! Latter pair has a more "open space" or "wide stage", but this is subjective feeling, perhaps because of different (open vs. closed) design of the HD800. Conclusion: I fell in love with my three OPPO products. Have fun!

I would like to spend more time with the HA-2. I auditioned it briefly at TAVES back in November, it was the full production version I believe, and I wasn't overly impressed with it, being driven from the line out of my X5. Immediately after, I did the exact same audition with a FiiO E12, different connecting cable but still from my X5's line out, and I found that made much more of an improvement with the headphones I was using at that time, NAD Viso HP50's. It's not that I didn't think the HA-2 was good I just didn't feel it was offering a significant improvement form the headphone out of my X5.
 
Right now with my PM-3's there is a huge improvement listening to the same music from the headphone jack of my BDP-105 then directly from the headphone out of my FiiO X5. The comparison is as fair as i can make it. By that I mean a 16.44.1 file culled form a bit perfect rip of the CD on EAC compared to the actual CD in the player, or a hi-rez 24/96, 24/192 rip from DVD-Audio Extractor compared directly to the two channel hi-rez version directly from the DVD-Audio itself loaded into the 105.

 

[PerfectHiFi]

These spectacular products PM-3 and HA-1 from OPPO sound as good as my HA-1 paired with HD800 with any kind of genre!

Correction: Should correctly read ....PM-3 and HA-2 sound as good as my HA-1 paired with HD800 with any genre. My apologizes.

 

[ohotonge]

well, pm-3 vs focal pro...

different tonal balance, as expected.

but I don't see one is better than the other.

focal's tonal balance is more fit with loud noise environments(metros, buses, studios etc....), and isolates more.

and pm-3 is not, more forward in presence region, but less extension in treble, and less emphasis in sub-bass... and that's it.

this impression more or less correspond with the measurements.   

I still enjoy focal pro enormously. 

quote name="ohotonge" url="/t/756828/oppo-pm-3-the-portable-planar-impressions/1665#post_11636087"]Comparing headphones are always enjoyable!

[/quote]

 

[subguy812]

I have been very critical in my listening to the PM-3. I am on my 2nd time owning them because I felt maybe the 2 weeks I had them before wasn't fair. I still feel the same after the four days I have had them on this 2nd tour. They are an excellent sounding hp, but for outdoors environments I still feel there are better options for those type of environments. They require more power than the M2 and, if possible, I prefer to exercise or to go mobile without a stack in my pocket. It is important to remember that these are in the portable category. Size, a case, fold ability are only part of the portable equation. They can be a a little flat and boring without amping or else bumping the volume on your source. All in all an enjoyable hp.

 

[good sound]

  I have been very critical in my listening to the PM-3. I am on my 2nd time owning them because I felt maybe the 2 weeks I had them before wasn't fair. I still feel the same after the four days I have had them on this 2nd tour. They are an excellent sounding hp, but for outdoors environments I still feel there are better options for those type of environments. They require more power than the M2 and, if possible, I prefer to exercise or to go mobile without a stack in my pocket. It is important to remember that these are in the portable category. Size, a case, fold ability are only part of the portable equation. They can be a a little flat and boring without amping or else bumping the volume on your source. All in all an enjoyable hp.

I find my X5 drives my PM-3's to any volume I could tolerate, on low gain, and definitely sound better than my Viso HP50's. I find them much more comfortable than the HP50's and they seal just as well or better. I have no issues using them in an outdoor environment, which other than a brief amount of time on my Oppo Blu-ray player, is the only way they will be used. I don't really use headphones for indoor use.  I am not as enthused with the sound of them as I was in a demo I had with the prototypes back in November. There were three different prototypes and they definitely didn't go with the one I liked best for the production version, I would be willing to bet. They sound much better being driven directly form my Oppo BDP -105 universal Blu-ray player, so the scalability is definitely there. They are very good headphones for sure, but there is something about the sound that just seems a little off. I wonder if this is something that is inherent with Planar Magnetics, although i don't remember feeling this way about the sound of a pair of Hifiman HE-560's I was able to audition. If I was to ever put together a home headphone rig the HE-560's would definitely be the center of it. They blew me away. My guess is that my issue with the PM-3 has more to do with it being a closed back design. I wish i could articulate exactly what it is that bugs me about the sound of the PM-3, and given some more time with them i probably will. I can tell you it definitely has nothing to do with their upper frequency performance.

 

[subguy812]

I find my X5 drives my PM-3's to any volume I could tolerate, on low gain, and definitely sound better than my Viso HP50's. I find them much more comfortable than the HP50's and they seal just as well or better. I have no issues using them in an outdoor environment, which other than a brief amount of time on my Oppo Blu-ray player, is the only way they will be used. I don't really use headphones for indoor use.  I am not as enthused with the sound of them as I was in a demo I had with the prototypes back in November. There were three different prototypes and they definitely didn't go with the one I liked best for the production version, I would be willing to bet. They sound much better being driven directly form my Oppo BDP -105 universal Blu-ray player, so the scalability is definitely there. They are very good headphones for sure, but there is something about the sound that just seems a little off. I wonder if this is something that is inherent with Planar Magnetics, although i don't remember feeling this way about the sound of a pair of Hifiman HE-560's I was able to audition. If I was to ever put together a home headphone rig the HE-560's would definitely be the center of it. They blew me away. My guess is that my issue with the PM-3 has more to do with it being a closed back design. I wish i could articulate exactly what it is that bugs me about the sound of the PM-3, and given some more time with them i probably will. I can tell you it definitely has nothing to do with their upper frequency performance.

Yes the X5 drives them well...I dont care for the pairing but the X5 has power. However I do like the X5. I find on the Pono the volume needs to be bumped by as much as 1/8 to find the same volume, and as much as a 1/4 to get life. I walk an average of 3-5 miles a day so I encounter a variety of conditions. I use the PM-3 single ended and would like to hear them balanced on the Pono. MDR-1A has my attention for that very reason for a true balanced connection.

 

[good sound]

 

I find my X5 drives my PM-3's to any volume I could tolerate, on low gain, and definitely sound better than my Viso HP50's. I find them much more comfortable than the HP50's and they seal just as well or better. I have no issues using them in an outdoor environment, which other than a brief amount of time on my Oppo Blu-ray player, is the only way they will be used. I don't really use headphones for indoor use.  I am not as enthused with the sound of them as I was in a demo I had with the prototypes back in November. There were three different prototypes and they definitely didn't go with the one I liked best for the production version, I would be willing to bet. They sound much better being driven directly form my Oppo BDP -105 universal Blu-ray player, so the scalability is definitely there. They are very good headphones for sure, but there is something about the sound that just seems a little off. I wonder if this is something that is inherent with Planar Magnetics, although i don't remember feeling this way about the sound of a pair of Hifiman HE-560's I was able to audition. If I was to ever put together a home headphone rig the HE-560's would definitely be the center of it. They blew me away. My guess is that my issue with the PM-3 has more to do with it being a closed back design. I wish i could articulate exactly what it is that bugs me about the sound of the PM-3, and given some more time with them i probably will. I can tell you it definitely has nothing to do with their upper frequency performance.

Yes the X5 drives them well...I dont care for the pairing but the X5 has power. However I do like the X5. I find on the Pono the volume needs to be bumped by as much as 1/8 to find the same volume, and as much as a 1/4 to get life. I walk an average of 3-5 miles a day so I encounter a variety of conditions. I use the PM-3 single ended and would like to hear them balanced on the Pono. MDR-1A has my attention for that very reason for a true balanced connection.

Yes, I walk an average of 5-10 KM per day, in a city environment, at least five days a week and always have my X5 and headphone du jur with me, as long as it's not raining.

 

[provision]

  The PM-3 are finally available in Canada.
 
http://shop.solutionsav.ca/pm-3-closed-back-planar-magnetic-headphones-black-finish/

And you can get them for a decent price . When the price for these becomes reasonable in Europe I sure will try them, but I'm not paying the equivalent of USD 700.

 

[tolis626]

 
And you can get them for a decent price . When the price for these becomes reasonable in Europe I sure will try them, but I'm not paying the equivalent of USD 700.

This. 1000 times this. 530€ is too much, period. Unless I find a way to avoid paying my weight's worth in gold in customs taxes (and I'm a bit overweight, so...) while having Shipto ship them to me from the US... Nope, no PM-3 for me.
 
With that said, I will probably go to a store that has them on display next week. I hope I can listen to them for a while so I can have a first opinion about whether they suit my taste. Any tips about what I should avoid? Unless the store has them paired with some amp/DAC, I will be driving them from my S3.