By: Jay Garrett

Jay Garrett — Fri, 24 Jul 2015 13:21:07 +0000

In reply to Brian.

Hi Brian.

Thanks for writing.

I’ve heard good things about the Fiios so I am thinking that your headphones might just need to be run in a bit more.

Have you tried FLAC (lossless) music files through your system? MP3s can be lossly and compressed. MP4 is more of a containment system rather than a compression system so it depends what the files were beforehand.

Portable DAC/Amps do help but, if I was you, I’d persevere with the PM3s and give them adequate ‘burn in’ time.

It’s only recently that I’ve got used to jumping from headphones to headphones but the first few times it was always a wrench to go from my old faithfuls to some new ones – kinda like shoes.

Please let me know how you get along.

Thanks again for reading and leaving your questions.

Jay

By: Brian

Brian — Mon, 13 Jul 2015 08:24:00 +0000

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.

Comments on: Oppo PM-3 headphone review

By: Jay Garrett

By: Brian