[pigerwoods]

Guys, I am looking for a little advice please. I am pretty new to the whole higher end music thing, I am by no measure an audiophile and don’t know the correct terminologies, so please be patient with me. I will try to explain everything as best I can. Recently my ipod classic crashed on me so I bought a Fiio X5 2nd generation player, which I am more than happy with, currently all my music files are MP4 (any advice?) as I just dragged them from my itunes library. While in the store, I also made an impulse buy of a pair of OPPO PM3 headphones. It seems I made a little bit of a rookie error and didn't really spend as much time test driving them in the store as I should have. Now, don't get me wrong, there is no doubt that these are great headphones but to be honest, I am finding the sound a little disappointing for my taste and expectations. I like my music loud(ish) with some base but not overwhelming. I also like to be "immersed", probably with a fuller, warmer sound. What I am finding with the current set up, is that although it is very accurate and certain vocals or instruments sound amazing, the sum of all parts together feels a bit thin, detached and quite linear. I am finding my ear concentrating on an individual instrument as opposed to feeling “wrapped” in the whole song. At volume, It feels to my ear quite shrill and almost synthetic and emotionless (but not distorted). It’s a weird thing to say but it almost feels that the depiction of some instruments is so accurate and pronounced, that they don’t gel with other instruments and almost sound out of tune. The sound all seems to be foreground with little in the way of depth and background…Crazy I know but I am just trying to explain as best I can.
The other frustration is that when I am listening to some tracks where I know there is a lot going on in the background (for example the strings on Street Spirit by Radiohead or the little background riffs and soft drumming on a lot of MUSE tracks) but they just aren’t relayed. I know they are there but they are not being projected… The same goes for big emotional piano or string sections (again Muse tracks or Roads by Portishead) I am left feeling like the headphones have a lot more to give…but don’t. I am even finding myself sometimes reverting back to my crappy old 40 quid Sony MDR-XB500’s…like an old comfort blanket. I have played with the gain and equalizer on the Fiio but still don’t really get what I am looking for.
Will a portable amp help with the issues that I have (badly) described? If so, do you have any recommendations (not too pricey or bulky) please? Do the headphones need time to settle in? Are my expectations too high for the setup? Again, sorry for the length of post but I am trying to decide whether to go down the road of a portable amp or just call the job a bad one and look for alternative headphones. Any help greatly appreciated thanks.

 

[Guppy_]

  Sound Quality
The overall sound quality of the PM-3 is very good indeed. In fact, it may be the most neutral sounding headphone I've experienced. My previous standard in that regard was the NAD VISO HP50, which in comparison now sounds a bit warm and thick. If the PM-3 does deviate from neutral I'd say it had a bit of extra upper-bass/low-mid energy, a bit extra lower-treble, and is slightly rolled off in the top octave. I heard it as very slightly "U" shaped due to the slight upper-bass/low-mid and low treble peaks...initially.
A slightly "U" shaped response means it should sound slightly exciting, but somehow they just don't to me. If anything, they sound slightly boring...again, just slightly. Problem is, for quite a while I really couldn't figure out what was going on that might give me that bland impression. The bass hits hard; mid-range is very well behaved with low distortion; treble seemed slightly forward in the presence region and slightly laid back in the top octave. But there was nothing blatantly obvious that I could figure out.

Read more at http://www.innerfidelity.com/content/oppo-pm-3-competent-comfortable-mobile-headphone-page-2#ljqKSxrPzj21LHjK.99

 
What you describe is spot on with inner fidelity, buying an amp will not make the PM-3 have more bass, before any other impuse buy, you could try EQing.

 

[cel4145]

^^

Agreed. Your MDR-XB500 are bass heavy headphones. If you find yourself going back to them for their sound signature, seems like the PM-3s were not the right sound signature for you. You might talk to people in this thread and see what the recommend: http://www.head-fi.org/t/715697/the-audiophile-bass-lounge-basshead-club-part-ii

 

[pigerwoods]

Guppy / cel4145,
 
Thanks for the advice....it was a case of everything sounding good in the store but then just not doing it for me at home. Having had a think about it, I reckon I am going to sell them on. They are excellent headphones but just not to my taste. Even if an amp did help (which as you say is unlikely), I don't really want to carry one around with me. In my view, if I am spending 500 bucks on a pair of headphones, I want them to sound good to me out of the box rather than persevere with something that I know is not right for me....time for a new search. I will put this down as a valuable lesson learned while looking for a new set.Thanks again.
 
Cheers
 
pigerwoods

 

[ProtegeManiac]

  Recently my ipod classic crashed on me so I bought a Fiio X5 2nd generation player, which I am more than happy with, currently all my music files are MP4 (any advice?) as I just dragged them from my itunes library. While in the store, I also made an impulse buy of a pair of OPPO PM3 headphones. It seems I made a little bit of a rookie error and didn't really spend as much time test driving them in the store as I should have. Now, don't get me wrong, there is no doubt that these are great headphones but to be honest, I am finding the sound a little disappointing for my taste and expectations. I like my music loud(ish) with some base but not overwhelming. I also like to be "immersed", probably with a fuller, warmer sound. What I am finding with the current set up, is that although it is very accurate and certain vocals or instruments sound amazing, the sum of all parts together feels a bit thin, detached and quite linear. I am finding my ear concentrating on an individual instrument as opposed to feeling “wrapped” in the whole song. At volume, It feels to my ear quite shrill and almost synthetic and emotionless (but not distorted). It’s a weird thing to say but it almost feels that the depiction of some instruments is so accurate and pronounced, that they don’t gel with other instruments and almost sound out of tune. The sound all seems to be foreground with little in the way of depth and background…Crazy I know but I am just trying to explain as best I can.
The other frustration is that when I am listening to some tracks where I know there is a lot going on in the background (for example the strings on Street Spirit by Radiohead or the little background riffs and soft drumming on a lot of MUSE tracks) but they just aren’t relayed. I know they are there but they are not being projected… The same goes for big emotional piano or string sections (again Muse tracks or Roads by Portishead) I am left feeling like the headphones have a lot more to give…but don’t. I am even finding myself sometimes reverting back to my crappy old 40 quid Sony MDR-XB500’s…like an old comfort blanket. I have played with the gain and equalizer on the Fiio but still don’t really get what I am looking for.

 
From my listening with the PM-3 the thing about those headphones is that they don't really push the sound forward. Everything is actually there, and with good dynamic range softer background sounds are softer than what you'd be used to with dynamically compressed playback systems, and they aren't pushing them forward so they're harder to hear. They also don't have much of a seal, so you need to be in a quieter room - you only think your room is quiet with no distinct sound but it might still have at least 20dB of ambient noise.
 
Certain response curves on cheaper headphones tend to compensate for a lot of things. My $50 Superlux sounds better for music at daytime than my HD600, only because it has a +8dB of bass boost at around 80hz (roughly 4dB more than the Sennheiser's) since it can compensate for ambient noise and let me hear the basslines a lot better.
 
 
 

 
Will a portable amp help with the issues that I have (badly) described? If so, do you have any recommendations (not too pricey or bulky) please? Do the headphones need time to settle in? Are my expectations too high for the setup? Again, sorry for the length of post but I am trying to decide whether to go down the road of a portable amp or just call the job a bad one and look for alternative headphones. Any help greatly appreciated thanks

 

Amplifiers don't "add" bass, they just clean it up. Sloppy, loose, muddy bass just gets clearer. Those who think an amp "adds" bass only think so because whatever they were using previously had sloppy but not loud bass, but when the amp tightened that up, the loose notes became more coherent hits and they think it "added" bass as opposed to just making them sound more natural.

 

As it is the X5 already produces a lot more power than some cheap amps. You'll be better off trying the EQ, or a different headphone.

 

 

[pigerwoods]

@ProtegeManiac.
 
Thanks for the answer. I see what you mean about the ambient noise levels...guess this is why they sounded great in the store's listening room yet were compromised when I was using them in every day situations.....different headphone for me I think.
 
thanks again
 
Brian