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Author Topic: Oppo PM-1s  (Read 11722 times)

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Anaxilus

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Re: Oppo PM-1s
« Reply #50 on: June 28, 2014, 07:24:15 PM »

That's not very fair. Stock T50RPs are truly awful, like iBuds level of audio destruction.

The PM-1 may not be your cup of tea, but they are certainly far more technically capable than stock Fostex.
That's not very fair. Stock T50RPs are truly awful, like iBuds level of audio destruction.

The PM-1 may not be your cup of tea, but they are certainly far more technically capable than stock Fostex.

You don't understand. I'm not insulting or joking. I AB'd them with a two-jack amp. The Stock T50RP's are better pretty much across the board.

Honestly, in my inconsequential experience, the T50rp drivers can be somewhat Jeckyl and Hyde, especially unit to unit, amp to amp.  Despite their flat impedance curve from being an ortho, they do respond better to some gear versus others.  I recall when I was modding some back when I had the Fiio E9 I could never predict how the T50rp would sound that day from the E9 using just a stock pair.  Just putting that out there.

Sometimes it was a piece of shit experience, others I wondered if I needed anything more type of evening. 
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Claritas

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Re: Oppo PM-1s
« Reply #51 on: June 29, 2014, 12:10:22 AM »

Forgiving and polite, absolutely. Not to the point that everything becomes boring, but definitely relaxing (ah, yes, sit back in my robe with a pipe and listen to relaxing...metal). A bit on the wimpy side with bass and treble. Great and easy to sink into when you first hit play, but you lose interest after a while.

I do tend to prefer more forgiving and polite gear, and while the PM-1 overall fit my tastes very well, it was still too much for me. I think that says a lot. OTOH, the PM-1 has enough promise that future iterations might be exactly what I want.

Yup, a natural easy-going sound that can easily become boring. They'd have to fix the treble to interest me--it just sounds so shoved down.
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k3oxkjo

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Re: Oppo PM-1s
« Reply #52 on: July 04, 2014, 03:13:37 PM »

I think the new site motto should be "Aarrr! Me limp-dick headphones be effin' ringin"

Or at least change it to that every June 21 to commemorate the first known use of the term "limp-dick" in a headphone review.

Though I do think Julian Hirsh used the expression in his review of the Bose 901 speakers... (dinosaur reference for the old-timers out there).
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Updated Oppo PM-1 Measurements
« Reply #53 on: July 12, 2014, 10:59:11 AM »

I don't expect any of this to make the PM-1 a less confusing headphone. If you read my recent post on one of the HD600 measurements threads, you'll know I've made a pretty big tweak in how I compensate for bass since I've measured the PM-1 or HA-RX700. Originally, my loopback hardware measurements exhibited a large bass roll-off, roughly 14dB down at the 20Hz mark. When originally experimenting with my compensation curves, I compensated based on that. However, I felt I was getting exaggerated bass response results. So, I tuned down the bass compensation, subjectively. At the time, this boosted the bass at 20Hz by roughly 5dB from raw measurements. I later changed this to ~7dB for the RX-700 measurements. I was also tweaking the 2-5KHz area and area above 10KHz, toning both areas down after compensation.

I had planned on using the HD600 as a reference point for my measurements, given how many sources of measurements exist for this headphone and their relatively consistent results. With my previous compensation method, my bass results weren't too far off Tyll's results for the HD600...but I had too much bass roll-off relative to almost every other available measurement. My quick HD600 measurements also showed I had been cutting off too much of the response above 10KHz. On some headphones, I thought my 2-5KHz results were exaggerated, but considering I found that hard to repeat in other headphones, I decided to dropped it and reasoned that was just a subjective error on my part. So, I've stuck to my plan and have used the HD600 to arrive at a compensation curve that gave me the results I was expecting for the HD600, my reference point in a sense, and one that is pretty agreeable (simple) for me to keep in place as a final compensation curve. All I'm doing now is simply compensating for my hardware as my loopback measurements indicated. This doesn't account for the mic, and other measurements floating around on the internet of the mic I'm using vary...I simply decided to leave that as-is, but all it would generally change is slightly decreasing the response above 9KHz or so after compensation.

That said, I've kept my raw measurements around for this exact reason and wanted to apply my new compensation curve to my PM-1 data. I've attached images below (read note below about HD numbers getting screwy with CSV exports).

So, wait, are we still dealing with floppy sausage? Subjectively, yes. I still think these measurements make sense, and more so than my previous ones. I subjectively found the PM-1 to have good bass extension and a fuller response than my measurements indicated, so what these measurements show doesn't surprise me. What measurements can't tell you is that it's not particularly impactful or forceful bass. It is faily clean, balanced, and extends well, yes, but it had a subjectively light and relaxing quality to it. The HD600 generally sounds livelier in this regard, but I'm wondering how much of this is due to the slight hump around 100Hz and the extra distortion relative to the PM-1. Some of it could be the different types of drivers. As an example, I've found T50RP driver to not be as impactful sounding as other drivers at times despite measurements being roughly similar. I'm guessing the PM-1's damping configuration also plays a role in making it sound weak and constricted. These graphs still support the idea that they are a fairly warm sounding headphone.

The upper response still has missing information and has a fair amount of roll-off, enough to explain their relative lack of treble liveliness and air relative to other headphones. You can think of it more as a rapid drop in the response after 5KHz with a small-ish peak around 10KHz or so. And, again, these things really sound like they're just over-damped in general or something of that nature. So, in the end, we're really just left with extra bass that I thought I heard anyway, and I did occasionally mention in my prior post that I thought the measurements didn't quite match what I heard. The new results make a bit more sense in hindsight.

As was the case with my HA-RX700 measurements, the exported CSV data for distortion didn't come out right. I don't have the PM-1 on hand to get new measurements, but you can tell it's pretty clean. Most of the elevated spots (bass, treble, NOT the mid-bass area) have exaggerated results after being exported to CSV, and I don't know why. I will be experimenting with ARTA, new versions of the software, and my HD600 in the near future to see if I can fix this on future measurements.

Raw data from before is obviously still the same. CSDs change like the FR does but look pretty much the same otherwise.

TL;DR: New changes to compensation curve, mostly means moar bass. Updated PM-1 measurements. Does not change the boring sound.
« Last Edit: July 12, 2014, 11:23:03 AM by hans030390 »
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Re: Oppo PM-1s
« Reply #54 on: July 12, 2014, 12:05:39 PM »

So, wait, are we still dealing with floppy sausage? Subjectively, yes. . . . I subjectively found the PM-1 to have good bass extension and a fuller response than my measurements indicated . . . What measurements can't tell you is that it's not particularly impactful or forceful bass. It is fairly clean, balanced, and extends well, yes, but it had a subjectively light and relaxing quality to it.

That's how I heard it too. Its bass is like a bomb explosion with only the aftershock.
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Re: Oppo PM-1s
« Reply #55 on: July 12, 2014, 09:19:02 PM »

Those look good - as how I perceive the tonal response. Dark tilt with upper mid / lower treble depression. Pretty good FR. But FR isn't everything.
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Re: Oppo PM-1s
« Reply #56 on: July 12, 2014, 10:10:44 PM »

Can we get overlay with HD600 and any other 'phones you have on hand?
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Re: Oppo PM-1s
« Reply #57 on: July 13, 2014, 02:29:30 PM »

Yup, once I get measurements for it. I lied and didn't do it over my weekend like I said I would...oops!
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HD600 vs PM-1
« Reply #58 on: July 19, 2014, 04:53:32 PM »

HD600 vs PM-1, as requested.
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Deep Funk

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Re: Oppo PM-1s
« Reply #59 on: July 19, 2014, 09:24:03 PM »

The PM1 looks good in the measurements. Thing is the high and treble range seem missing.

The HD600 is good headphone and seems to offer a more balanced sound. I now understand the comments. Thanks  ahoy
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