[feverfive]

Man I hate head-fi sometimes.  Recently I finally acknowledged that I'm not really a headphone guy, rather go IEMs from now on.  However, the idea of a non-behemoth planar is making me re-consider.  And it's not like the price is prohibitive either.

 

[dcginc]

Any comparisons to KEF M500's?

 

[marcoarment]

Any comparisons to KEF M500's?

I have (and like) the M500s and will do the comparison as soon as my PM-3 arrives. Best guess so far: the PM-3 will likely have more treble presence. M500 sounds generally good except for its noticeably muffled high end.

 

[dcginc]

Perfect! Thxs

 

[c1umsyb3ar]

Very nice. Thanks for the pics and early impressions. I got the feeling that the soundstage wouldn't be great as mentioned by crazydeep. It'll be great if you compare the PM-3 with your M100 as this is what PM-3 will be replacing in my arsenal...

No problem! I just got home so I'll have more pictures up in a bit. I'm in the exact same boat as you (M-100 or PM-3).

 

[lukeap69]

No problem! I just got home so I'll have more pictures up in a bit. I'm in the exact same boat as you (M-100 or PM-3).

Fantastic!

 

[c1umsyb3ar]

Fantastic!

Packaging:
 

The headphones come in this nice carrying case. It's quite sturdy and I'm sure it'll hold up quite well. 
 

Package in the middle contains the long "desktop cord" while there's a smaller box on the outside that contained my shorter "android" cable. 
 

 

Holding it. There's a small strap on the back for carrying purposes. 
 

Even with glasses, they're pretty comfortable. 
 

 
 
 

Some size comparison... 
 

 

 

How I'll be listening to them all night!

 
I noticed something very troubling when I plugged them into the schitt stack. I pulled up DJ Snake - You Know You Like It and noticed some TERRIBLE distortion in the lower mids (this was with the shorter android cable). There was some crackling as well. I pulled out the longer cable and noticed that some of it went away. I then went back to the android cable and found that it all went away. This was all within a span of about 10 minutes while I kept playing music. 
 
BUT when I pull up another favorite track of mine to test out headphones, Hans Zimmer - Mountains from Interstellar, the crackling is back. It doesn't distort the sound anymore but there's a moderate amount of crackling during the BWAAAHS which increases in intensity as the BWAAAHS get more intense. 
 
Note that this is only happening with that specific track and not with other songs... I've never had this problem with any of my headphones before. I don't listen to music at too high of a volume but even pushing my other headphones, I don't encounter the crackling. I've already emailed Oppo about this problem. I don't want to make this into too huge of a deal if all it needs is a little burning in. I'll be playing some pink noise through it while I sleep tonight and see if the problem if rectified in the morning. That said though, I'd like to go into some positive notes about the headphones:
 
(I wrote that around 9:30PM and is now 10:32PM, crackling is gone...)
 
V-modas mentioned in any comparison are the M-100s.
 
Comfort: The PM-3's are pretty comfortable to wear in general. Clamping force is moderate enough to not be forceful while able to keep it secured on your head. The cups swivel both ways. My head is slightly big but the PM-3's offer more than enough adjustment to fit everyone. Since the earpads are made of a plush leathery material, it doesn't offer much ventilation and I can already feel my ears getting hot after a while. I have the XL pads on the V-Modas but the PM-3s are more comfortable though it's not quite as comfy as the DT770s. Oppo's website have these weighed at 320g, 40g heavier than the V-Modas and you can definitely feel the difference. It's not uncomfortably heavy though. 
 
I will test out sound isolation from environment tomorrow. 
 
Sound: These headphones offer a warm, very detailed sound signature while keeping an "exciting" character.
 
Lows: Accurate and tight. They don't get in the way of the mid range at all but are still very present. I generally gravitate towards a slight bass emphasis with my headphones and these have enough to keep me happy. The V-Modas bass sounds overbearing and you lose some of the lower mid-range detail that you get with the PM-3s. There's a great bass drop in Hans Zimmer's Mountain after the first BWAAAH that I love to compare the mid to low bass in different headphones. The PM-3s were able to reach a little bit deeper than the PM-3s and it just sounded a bit cleaner than the V-Modas. Bass in EDM and Hip-hop music will not be lacking. Maybe it's just me, but I feel heavier rock such as A7X and Sixx:A.M. lose a little bit of life in the PM-3 compared to the V-Modas. 
 
Mids: Very present. Full orchestral pieces sound beautiful through these headphones. Vocals are much more present in the PM-3 than the V-Modas.
 
Treble: There's a slight sparkliness here but I don't think it's over done. It keeps EDM music pretty fun to listen to. Panama - Always (Wave Racer Remix) is awesome to listen to on these headphones. The twinkles in the song aren't overbearing and you can clearly hear it even in the busy parts of the song. Treble is just a bit smoother in the PM-3 than the V-Modas. 
 
Soundstage: There's not much of a soundstage in the V-Modas to compare them to the PM-3s. But the soundstage in the PM-3s isn't the best. You can hear where instruments are coming from in orchestral pieces. I used Joe Hisashi - Princess Mononoke (Live) for this. Instrument/choir separation is very good but I feel like there's not much depth to it. Then again, I don't think I'm the best when it comes to accurately judging soundstage (years of teaching competitive marching band and winter percussion will do that to you). Let me re-iterate that instrument separation is very very nice. Especially when things start to get busy in Princess Mononoke, and you get a very percussive heavy drive, followed by choir chanting, brass blaring, spicatto strings, you can still pick apart instruments easily. 
 
Amplification: I'm using just a slightly old Magni and Modi combination to test FLAC and Google Play Music tracks. I also have an HTC M8 that I plan on using the PM-3s with on the go. With an impedance of 26ohms and a sensitivity at 102dB, the PM-3s are easily driven by both so no problems there. 
 
Initial conclusions: After a weird distortion/crackling phase, the PM-3s are sound great. The build quality is fantastic, it looks great and the sound signature is pleasing and fun. I want to give it another week before I say anything definitive though. I'll keep adding to this post and answering any questions that anyone may have about the headphones. I'd like to see other people's impression on these headphones as well. Thus far, I'm loving them. 

 

[Allanmarcus]

@c1umsyb3ar

Great first impressions review! Thanks. Can you comment on the PM-3 vs the dt770s soundwise?

 

[lukeap69]

Packaging:



The headphones come in this nice carrying case. It's quite sturdy and I'm sure it'll hold up quite well. 



Package in the middle contains the long "desktop cord" while there's a smaller box on the outside that contained my shorter "android" cable. 






Holding it. There's a small strap on the back for carrying purposes. 



Even with glasses, they're pretty comfortable. 








Some size comparison... 

Sparkling but smoother treble, full mids, better soundstage & better instrument separation - I think I know now what should remain and what should go...

 

[miceblue]

So OPPO has stated that the PM-3's earpads weren't really meant to be easily removable, but they can be removed for wear/tear/maintenance purposes. I was a beta tester and I decided to take off an earpad just to see what the inside was like (note that the inside of the production unit might be a little different).

^ The famous spiral conductors on the driver and the mandarin thingamabob


^ That's underneath the earpad, more or less, again this is a beta unit. There are three tab-like things in that photo (there are more around the rest of the earpad, but I didn't count). The PM-3's earcup has small plastic hooked-tabs that correspondingly go into the slots next to those tab-like things. OPPO has stated that the earpads aren't really meant to be taken off easily probably because those tabs are pretty fragile and can be broken off if you're not super duper careful about taking the earpads off, or back on.


^ One of the tabs came off as I was trying to put back on the earpad.


So yes, you have been warned about the earpads not really being meant to be taken off. XD
If you do decide to take the pads off, just be really, really careful and vigilant about the tabs.

 

[c1umsyb3ar]

@c1umsyb3ar

Great first impressions review! Thanks. Can you comment on the PM-3 vs the dt770s soundwise?

Hey Allan, 
 
Hans Zimmer - Mountains
 
At the first BWAAAH, you can really hear how much edgier the DT770s sound compared to the PM-3s. The bass drop is more present in the DT770s than the PM-3s. You can hear how both headphones are able to reach the same lowest bass frequency but the DT770s give it more presence than the PM-3s. 
 
Childish Gambino - 3005
 
Again, the DT770 just gives out more bass than the PM-3s. That's not to say that the PM-3s aren't holding their own in terms of bass. Gambino's voice is more present in the PM-3s though. 
 
Hell Yea - Rev Theory
 
The DT770s V shape really shines here. The guitar is way more edgy and the bass is way more present. The cymbals are more rounded off in the PM-3s. Again, vocals are more present in the PM-3s as well. 
 
Stay Awake - Ellie Goulding
 
This song comes off very bright in the DT770s compared to the PM-3s. Ellie's voice is more round and warm in the PM-3 than in the DT770s. The high parts in the song are sharper in the DT770s as well. 
 
 
I think a lot of that was way too redundant but it's a bit late 

 I don't want to say that the DT770s are worse off than the PM-3 or anything like that. The PM-3 is definitely smoother though while the DT770s offer a more energetic and bright sound. Both offer a sound signature different from each other enough that I think you could warrant having both! Personally, I think that the PM-3s miss out on a bit of "fun" in rock and hard rock music that the DT770s are able to give. If you have any more questions, I'll try to answer them to the best of my abilities!

 

[c1umsyb3ar]

Sparkling but smoother treble, full mids, better soundstage & better instrument separation - I think I know now what should remain and what should go...

 

 I'd totally recommend you listen to them both though! If huge bass emphasis is your thing, the V-Modas are still the way to go. But even as a V-shaped enthusiast, I think I'm having more fun listening to music on the PM-3 (except for rock/hard rock) than the V-Modas though.

 

[money4me247]

@c1umsyb3ar, thank you for your impressions. i like how you write in terms of comparisons. it is a good shared common reference point for me as I've owned/tried the other headphones that you are directly comparing the pm-3s against so it gives me a better sense of what you mean. some reviewers here write a lot of flowery adjectives that are definitely interesting to read, but not as useful for me as it is hard for me to relate to their comments and I am not sure how different their personal tastes are from me. do you have any other gear that you can compare the pm-3s too?
 
well, from my understanding of your posts, it seems like the pm-3 do not have a v-shaped sound signature. what kind of sound signature would you say they have?
 
cheers!

 

[UprightMan]

$400 for Oppos or $450 for Fostex TH-600?!  not quite the same but my main concern is sound leakage - anyone care to comment on which leak the least? 

 

[money4me247]

  $400 for Oppos or $450 for Fostex TH-600?!  not quite the same but my main concern is sound leakage - anyone care to comment on which leak the least? 

don't have the pm-3s yet to comment out sound leakage, but the fostex th-600 is generally not considered to be a good choice if your primary concern is noise isolation and sound leakage. the th-600 do indeed leak sound both in and out which is nice as it sounds like an open pair of headphones, but makes it an not an ideal choice for portable usage or situations that require noise isolation. I do have a friend who uses the th-600 for portable usage though.