[good sound]

Just received a shipping confirmation e-mail. That was fast, however the notification came from, gulp, Fed-Ex. They are notorious, although not quite as bad as UPS, for dinging people with outrageous brokerage fees for cross border shipping. Has anyone here from Canada ordered anything directly from Oppo and had it shipped via Fed-EX, and did you get nailed with an exorbitant brokerage charge?
 
I was so exited abut finally being able to afford them that I didn't think about inquiring about an alternative carrier. Rats!
 
I would really appreciate any member form Canada who has had anything sent from Oppo via Fed-ex to let me know as soon as possible. There were two other shipping alternatives from USPS offered at checkout that were more expensive. I have always had good luck receiving shipment from the US via USPS as far as not having to pay any extra duty or brokerage fees. 
 
I wonder if I e-mail Oppo, if it might not be too late to change carriers.

 

[aamefford]

Regarding pad removal @Soundsgoodtome, I'm no help either.  Careful fiddling, knowing the worse you could do is wreck a set of pads, and have to send them to Oppo and pay the "you worked on it first and then brought it to us" rate?  Maybe check and be sure they have spare pads to install first.  If you tackle it - Pics or it didn't happen!
 
I am betting on glue somewhere, that will maybe melt with a heat gun.  Just a wild guess though.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

Regarding pad removal @Soundsgoodtome
, I'm no help either.  Careful fiddling, knowing the worse you could do is wreck a set of pads, and have to send them to Oppo and pay the "you worked on it first and then brought it to us" rate? 

I think I will play with inserting padding/rubber cutouts inside the pad but above the dust cloth to increase space between ear and driver, I'd hate to ruin my investment by being too experimental. I want more bass is basically what I'm trying to achieve (not that there's any issue with the bass now, just looking for that extra boost for movies).

 

[tolis626]

  I think I will play with inserting padding/rubber cutouts inside the pad but above the dust cloth to increase space between ear and driver, I'd hate to ruin my investment by being too experimental. I want more bass is basically what I'm trying to achieve (not that there's any issue with the bass now, just looking for that extra boost for movies).

Maybe try the equalizer? Or another amp? I mean, it would be a waste to destroy such a nice (And may I add expensive for 99.9% of the world?) pair of headphones. Plus, if you want your head to explode from the bass every time there is an explosion on what you're watching, you've probably bought the wrong headphones pal.
 
With that said, I would put my bets on some clips and/or glue for the earpads. Maybe if you try to move them up or down a little would do the job. You could always use something to pry them off the headphones, but you would risk damaging the earpads, the haedphones themselves or both. It's not worth it IMO on such good headphones. I would maybe do it on a pair of cheap AKGs I own, but to the PM-3? Nah.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

  Maybe try the equalizer? Or another amp? I mean, it would be a waste to destroy such a nice (And may I add expensive for 99.9% of the world?) pair of headphones. Plus, if you want your head to explode from the bass every time there is an explosion on what you're watching, you've probably bought the wrong headphones pal.

Oh there's plenty of bass from my headphone rig, my movie/tv rig on the other hand isn't that great. I suppose I could wire my TV's line out to my headphone amp but I really enjoy the portability of my Bluetooth receiver/transmitter kit I got going. (Yes, the PM3 does work well with the BT receiver/amp I bought) I'm not looking for earth shattering bass but a slight boost would be nice.

 

[nick n]

Yeah there is some clips on the pads and they can break. When if I figure out a way to do it easily without breaking anything, as one other has done, will post that up. Not likely to try for a while though.

 

[tolis626]

  Oh there's plenty of bass from my headphone rig, my movie/tv rig on the other hand isn't that great. I suppose I could wire my TV's line out to my headphone amp but I really enjoy the portability of my Bluetooth receiver/transmitter kit I got going. (Yes, the PM3 does work well with the BT receiver/amp I bought) I'm not looking for earth shattering bass but a slight boost would be nice.

I guess you're talking about something like the Creative E3? If so, these things can be a bit lacking in the audio quality department. So my point still stands. It's potentially less costly to buy something better for use with your TV than to mess with the PM-3s. Now, if cost isn't an issue, I would be checking out something like the Audioengine D2. It's a wireless DAC and it's the same as the D1, so the audio is quite good. And if you find that lacking without amplification (I see no reason with 32Ω headphones), you can hook it up with a cheap portable amp. That's a costly (quite costly, actually) solution and there's a bit of bulk, but I still would prefer it over the possibility of destroying the headphones.

 

[Soundsgoodtome]

  I guess you're talking about something like the Creative E3? If so, these things can be a bit lacking in the audio quality department. So my point still stands. It's potentially less costly to buy something better for use with your TV than to mess with the PM-3s. Now, if cost isn't an issue, I would be checking out something like the Audioengine D2. It's a wireless DAC and it's the same as the D1, so the audio is quite good. And if you find that lacking without amplification (I see no reason with 32Ω headphones), you can hook it up with a cheap portable amp. That's a costly (quite costly, actually) solution and there's a bit of bulk, but I still would prefer it over the possibility of destroying the headphones.

This is what I recommend. 200mw of power, enough to drive the PM3s and it sounds fantastic through BT. http://www.amazon.com/Bluetooth-receiver-amplifier-class1-black/dp/B00JUGSUQG

I'm so impressed by this thing that I'll be doing a review for the little guy soon. As for the TV side, I have a Turtle Beach 5.1 DSS (i bought for $20 on Ebay) running via Optical out to a $40 APTX transmitter. Before buying the PM3s I was using some heavily modified MDR-XB950BT headphones so you see where the wanting of bass comes from.

 

 

[money4me247]

  Regarding pad removal @Soundsgoodtome, I'm no help either.  Careful fiddling, knowing the worse you could do is wreck a set of pads, and have to send them to Oppo and pay the "you worked on it first and then brought it to us" rate?  Maybe check and be sure they have spare pads to install first.  If you tackle it - Pics or it didn't happen!
 
I am betting on glue somewhere, that will maybe melt with a heat gun.  Just a wild guess though.

@Soundsgoodtome, please note that Oppo specifically designed the earpads to be NON-user-removable to improve the seal for the bass. Attempt at your own risk & note that you may incur additional repair fees if it doesn't work out and you have to send them have to Oppo. Perhaps contact Oppo customer support about that topic.
 

The ear pads are made of durable synthetic leather and are not designed to be detached by the end user. Should your headphones require service, please contact OPPO Digital or your place of purchase.

from the Oppo PM-3 User manual.

 

[djimon]

I emailed Oppo and they replied back "You can remove the earpads yourself. We will likely sell them for $30.00."

 

[money4me247]

  I emailed Oppo and they replied back "You can remove the earpads yourself. We will likely sell them for $30.00."

niice. thanks for the update. for anyone attempting this, please do share pictures!  

 

[nick n]

Good news on the upcoming availability.
Next is figuring out how without thrashing anything.
 
 Thanks for that info.

 

[Smarty-pants]

Well this is NOT a recommendation from me to go and try to yank the pads off any PM-3s,
but since it's being discussed in depth, I thought I would share this.
It's in German, but the part you want to see should happen right after the 5 minute mark and
you don't need to speak German to see it.

 

[HiFiAudio]

Per Oppo:
 
The PM-3 needs a tight seal between the ear pad and the driver front baffle in order to work properly. This is why the ear pad attachment mechanism is very different from the PM-1/PM-2. Removing the ear pads requires some brute force. With skill and luck nothing bad will happen, but we broke a few clips when we attempted this. If a clip breaks from the driver's front baffle, the entire driver must be replaced. Not only that - since the drivers are paired for their acoustic response, the other driver needs to be replaced too.
When our customer service tells a customer to remove the ear pad for whatever reason (like yesterday a customer got a pair of PM-3 with a defective ear pad), we are prepared to take the responsibility to replace the drivers or headphone in the worst case situation. So the instruction and permission is case-by-case.

 

[aqsw]

Just picked mine up from the dealer. I know they won't get a lot of home use but I'm still looking forward for portable.