[keanex]

  Maybe it is only me, but I do have a little bit issues about this review.
 
When your reference is AD2000 and Grado, words like "warm", "air" and "forward mid" means very little to me since none of these phones are "neutral" in the first place.
For example, I find everything I have heard (apart from beyer's custom pro one) has a "forward mid" compare to Grado. (Just personal opinion) .
 
As for sound stage, many phones have "wider" or "Air" sounds because some tuning with added "WOW" effect. That does not mean they are accurate and detailed. I still find HD800 having less "space" than the T1, manage to provide a better sound stage.
 
In addition, I really do not  think that the only thing a planar can do is to provide more sub bass to a hip-hop song. I do think you need to elaborate more about the bass. Detail level, control as well as how deep does it go. (maybe throw more sound choices? I think all songs have bass, you should review it against different Genre)
(You are reviewing a $1000+ headphone, not beats........ So, I was hoping more comparison from the same pool: LCD2, HE6, W5000,AD7000,etc)
 
 
P.S.
 
apart from all above, I think it is a grate reviews. Very nice photos.

 
If you want to send me your LCD2, HE6 and etc to compare then I'll gladly compare them. I don't have those headphones so my review is coming from a mid-fi enthusiast and experienced headphone reviewer. Take that as you will.

 

[AlanHell]

   
If you want to send me your LCD2, HE6 and etc to compare then I'll gladly compare them. I don't have those headphones so my review is coming from a mid-fi enthusiast and experienced headphone reviewer. Take that as you will.

I really do not think there is a mid-fi tire here.
As I am pretty sure they are headphones around $300-$600 dollars that sounds very very good and can be consider as "hifi" for sure.
What I am saying is maybe you should pick some less extreme examples so the compassion will be much more vivid. Basically, set up some baseline so people will have a better sense of your descriptive word suchas "warm", "Air", "froward", etc.
 
For example, in the bass test, you use Holy Grail as benchmark song. I also fire it up with my gear. With the same system, my T1 and HD800 and HE6 all sounds the same in the bass compartment with HE-6 carries a bit more punch. In terms of body, quality and control, I find no different because the bass in the song is just simple square waves . The same goes for the mid/high test. As much as I like Come Round Soon, it also does not provide enough information for me to evaluate mid and high properly. The conclusion I can get from that song is very limited and I am unable to tell the difference in terms  of resolution on high frequency and sound stage.
 
As you can see, I do read your reviews as I am very very interested in this head phone.
And I do want to know more about this phone from you.
I am just asking for more information if you are kind enough to share with me.
 
Thanks

 

[shuttleboi]

I looked through all the photos. I find it amazing that you took so many pictures that are all bad. I think there is only photo that shows the entirety of the headphones instead of some small part of it. 

 

[HasturTheYellow]

That is sort of the point. The emphasis is in the details. If you want some full images of the PM-1, you can find a pair of hi-resolution images on the PM-1 website.

 

[swspiers]

Amazing job on the review.  Since I think Oppo is going after a market other than the usual Hifiman/Audeze crowd, I think your review was appropriate and very relevant.
 
It's amazing how much negativity these cans are spawning from people who simply have not heard them. 

 

[cute]

Hearin' is believin', simple as that!

 

[DutchGFX]

Amazing job on the review.  Since I think Oppo is going after a market other than the usual Hifiman/Audeze crowd, I think your review was appropriate and very relevant.

It's amazing how much negativity these cans are spawning from people who simply have not heard them. 

Some of us have heard them and didn't like them. As I said before, as did Oleg, they aren't bad, they are just way overpriced. For the price of a used HD800 or T1, you should get the sound quality of the HD800 or the T1, and its not even close.

 

[Earbones]

Hmmm... Seems to me that while it may be a great set of cans, Oppo has sort of painted themselves into a corner here. I can say for certain that there are quite a few extraneous accessories here that are responsible for the $1,100 price tag. The wooden presentation box, for instance, is not a cheap item to fabricate. You see things like that in wrist watches, where the markups are so extraordinary to begin with that a glossy wood box is worth the expense for the manufacturer if it helps to sell just a hundred or so more watches. But then you're talking about watches that may cost $500 to produce and have MSRP's of $8,000-$22,000. Within the headphone world, where boxes like this do not increase sales, and you're talking about smaller profit margins, it doesn't make sense. All it serves to do is force you to price the phones higher. Not smart.
 
Oppo could be selling this headphone somewhere around $600 if they hadn't upped the luxury factor to such extreme levels, and be making a handsome profit. The tough situation they are going to find themselves in is that demand for a "cut-rate" version without all the extras is going to be through the roof, but they won't be able to sell one without backlash from the people who have already bought the "luxury" version. 
 
Long story short, there will always be a market for luxury items, and some people will definitely buy this at $1100. But you have to figure that realistically, if they'd just put this in a nice cardboard box and dialed down some of the other non-essential perks, they could have sold this for around $600, and over the entire production run ultimately made probably ten times what they will make selling it for $1,100. Not to mention where such a run-away success would position them in the headphone market... They could have cornered the Planar Magnetic niche.
 
If I ran Oppo, I'd be congratulating my engineers, and firing my marketing people right about now...

 

[Bolardito]

Hmmm... Seems to me that while it may be a great set of cans, Oppo has sort of painted themselves into a corner here. I can say for certain that there are quite a few extraneous accessories here that are responsible for the $1,100 price tag. The wooden presentation box, for instance, is not a cheap item to fabricate. You see things like that in wrist watches, where the markups are so extraordinary to begin with that a glossy wood box is worth the expense for the manufacturer if it helps to sell just a hundred or so more watches. But then you're talking about watches that may cost $500 to produce and have MSRP's of $8,000-$22,000. Within the headphone world, where boxes like this do not increase sales, and you're talking about smaller profit margins, it doesn't make sense. All it serves to do is force you to price the phones higher. Not smart.

Oppo could be selling this headphone somewhere around $600 if they hadn't upped the luxury factor to such extreme levels, and be making a handsome profit. The tough situation they are going to find themselves in is that demand for a "cut-rate" version without all the extras is going to be through the roof, but they won't be able to sell one without backlash from the people who have already bought the "luxury" version. 

Long story short, there will always be a market for luxury items, and some people will definitely buy this at $1100. But you have to figure that realistically, if they'd just put this in a nice cardboard box and dialed down some of the other non-essential perks, they could have sold this for around $600, and over the entire production run ultimately made probably ten times what they will make selling it for $1,100. Not to mention where such a run-away success would position them in the headphone market... They could have cornered the Planar Magnetic niche.

If I ran Oppo, I'd be congratulating my engineers, and firing my marketing people right about now...
[/quot

Thats is why they are releasing soon a cheaper model without the fancy materials and accesories..it is called the PM-2 and it has the same drivers as the the PM-1

 

[Bolardito]

Hmmm... Seems to me that while it may be a great set of cans, Oppo has sort of painted themselves into a corner here. I can say for certain that there are quite a few extraneous accessories here that are responsible for the $1,100 price tag. The wooden presentation box, for instance, is not a cheap item to fabricate. You see things like that in wrist watches, where the markups are so extraordinary to begin with that a glossy wood box is worth the expense for the manufacturer if it helps to sell just a hundred or so more watches. But then you're talking about watches that may cost $500 to produce and have MSRP's of $8,000-$22,000. Within the headphone world, where boxes like this do not increase sales, and you're talking about smaller profit margins, it doesn't make sense. All it serves to do is force you to price the phones higher. Not smart.

Oppo could be selling this headphone somewhere around $600 if they hadn't upped the luxury factor to such extreme levels, and be making a handsome profit. The tough situation they are going to find themselves in is that demand for a "cut-rate" version without all the extras is going to be through the roof, but they won't be able to sell one without backlash from the people who have already bought the "luxury" version. 

Long story short, there will always be a market for luxury items, and some people will definitely buy this at $1100. But you have to figure that realistically, if they'd just put this in a nice cardboard box and dialed down some of the other non-essential perks, they could have sold this for around $600, and over the entire production run ultimately made probably ten times what they will make selling it for $1,100. Not to mention where such a run-away success would position them in the headphone market... They could have cornered the Planar Magnetic niche.

If I ran Oppo, I'd be congratulating my engineers, and firing my marketing people right about now...

Thats is why they are releasing soon a cheaper model without the fancy materials and accesories..it is called the PM-2 and it has the same drivers as the the PM-1

 

[tinyman392]

Thats is why they are releasing soon a cheaper model without the fancy materials and accesories..it is called the PM-2 and it has the same drivers as the the PM-1

 
Has this been confirmed by Oppo, or just speculation?

 

[HasturTheYellow]

Confirmed. This was the text used for the Press Release which officially announced the PM-1 and PM-2 headphones.

The PM-2 will maintain very similar performance to the PM-1 while reducing costs to the customer. It utilizes the same planar magnetic driver, the same acoustic design principles and tuning techniques, the same tight tolerances for quality control, and its lower price is achieved without sacrificing acoustic performance.

 

[Earbones]

   
Has this been confirmed by Oppo, or just speculation?

My question as well... I didn't know it was set in stone that the PM2 was essentially the same can internally... If that's true, I'd be pretty mad if I bought the PM1.

 

[keanex]

 
I really do not think there is a mid-fi tire here.
As I am pretty sure they are headphones around $300-$600 dollars that sounds very very good and can be consider as "hifi" for sure.
What I am saying is maybe you should pick some less extreme examples so the compassion will be much more vivid. Basically, set up some baseline so people will have a better sense of your descriptive word suchas "warm", "Air", "froward", etc.
 
For example, in the bass test, you use Holy Grail as benchmark song. I also fire it up with my gear. With the same system, my T1 and HD800 and HE6 all sounds the same in the bass compartment with HE-6 carries a bit more punch. In terms of body, quality and control, I find no different because the bass in the song is just simple square waves . The same goes for the mid/high test. As much as I like Come Round Soon, it also does not provide enough information for me to evaluate mid and high properly. The conclusion I can get from that song is very limited and I am unable to tell the difference in terms  of resolution on high frequency and sound stage.
 
As you can see, I do read your reviews as I am very very interested in this head phone.
And I do want to know more about this phone from you.
I am just asking for more information if you are kind enough to share with me.
 
Thanks

 
I'll try and satisfy you in any way I can, but I don't think that my view will ever fully satisfy you since my experience is mostly with headphones and IEMs around the $300 range. Let me know what I can do and I'll do my best.
 

  I looked through all the photos. I find it amazing that you took so many pictures that are all bad. I think there is only photo that shows the entirety of the headphones instead of some small part of it. 

 
Well I'm not a professional photographer nor do I have a set-up that is available for clean pictures. I do my reviews with what I have available. I'm sorry that the pictures aren't satisfactory to your liking.
 

  Amazing job on the review.  Since I think Oppo is going after a market other than the usual Hifiman/Audeze crowd, I think your review was appropriate and very relevant.
 
It's amazing how much negativity these cans are spawning from people who simply have not heard them. 

 
Thank you for the kind words. It seems these cans are really drawing out the negative in people and I'm not sure why.
 

Some of us have heard them and didn't like them. As I said before, as did Oleg, they aren't bad, they are just way overpriced. For the price of a used HD800 or T1, you should get the sound quality of the HD800 or the T1, and its not even close.

 
If I recall correctly the T1 were slammed for poor treble response and people, in general, thought them to be a waste of money. I guess the consensus changed or people are looking at the T1 with rose tinted glasses. Either way I don't recall them receiving positive press at all. Either way, not everyone wants the HD800. That's why the LCD2 are so popular. The PM-1 are being considered a natural extension of the HD650, that seems worth it enough to me.
 
Edit: Harsh treble I should say.
 

  Hmmm... Seems to me that while it may be a great set of cans, Oppo has sort of painted themselves into a corner here. I can say for certain that there are quite a few extraneous accessories here that are responsible for the $1,100 price tag. The wooden presentation box, for instance, is not a cheap item to fabricate. You see things like that in wrist watches, where the markups are so extraordinary to begin with that a glossy wood box is worth the expense for the manufacturer if it helps to sell just a hundred or so more watches. But then you're talking about watches that may cost $500 to produce and have MSRP's of $8,000-$22,000. Within the headphone world, where boxes like this do not increase sales, and you're talking about smaller profit margins, it doesn't make sense. All it serves to do is force you to price the phones higher. Not smart.
 
Oppo could be selling this headphone somewhere around $600 if they hadn't upped the luxury factor to such extreme levels, and be making a handsome profit. The tough situation they are going to find themselves in is that demand for a "cut-rate" version without all the extras is going to be through the roof, but they won't be able to sell one without backlash from the people who have already bought the "luxury" version. 
 
Long story short, there will always be a market for luxury items, and some people will definitely buy this at $1100. But you have to figure that realistically, if they'd just put this in a nice cardboard box and dialed down some of the other non-essential perks, they could have sold this for around $600, and over the entire production run ultimately made probably ten times what they will make selling it for $1,100. Not to mention where such a run-away success would position them in the headphone market... They could have cornered the Planar Magnetic niche.
 
If I ran Oppo, I'd be congratulating my engineers, and firing my marketing people right about now...

 
People who have the LCDX have said that they don't see a reason to buy the LCDX with the PM-1 available. Luxury tax or not, that seems to make the PM-1 a great value.

 

[DutchGFX]

People reviewed the T1 favorably. Skylab reviewed them and Jude is a huge fan of their cousin the T5p so I don't entirely agree that they have been reviewed poorly. Some people do like darker cans though for sure, so I understand why they would not like the T1.

I m suprised anyone would rather have the Oppo than the LCD-X, although I didn't really like the X to much honestly, I preferred the XC.

I DO understand that someone may figure that its more economical to get the Oppo, as the X is $1500, but I still think the PM-1 should be lowered in price.


The PM-2 seams like the perfect comprise. You know you are getting quality from Oppo, regardless of materials, so I think that model will sell much better than this one