As I told you years ago, the headphone industry is growing every day. People and companies became aware of the potential of this market and many important names started to look its way. Oppo is one of them.
Since I’ve heard about their new products I was really interested in hearing/testing them. Luckily I’ve managed to get my hands on a beautiful pair of PM-2 headphones and we have oppodigital.ro to thank for that.
Build Quality and Specs
While looking them for the first time, I was very pleased by the sturdy materials, build quality and very nice looks.
After testing them for a while I can say that they are quite comfortable and not disturbing in any way. I think that they are the smallest planars I’ve ever heard until now. These headphones are meant to be portable and come with a carrying case.
Specifications and Features
Stability, Consistency, Reliability
Many planar magnetic headphones have large balance deviations between the left and right channels, and accurate stereo reproduction is contingent on having a very close match between the left and right channels. During the OPPO PM-2’s manufacturing process, drivers are closely matched to ensure optimum stereo imaging and soundstage.
Phase Coherence
When sound enters our ear, it has a planar wave front with all spectrum components in phase. A typical dynamic headphone driver disrupts this coherence with its phase irregularity, resulting in less than perfect signal peak reconstructions. OPPO’s planar magnetic driver has much better phase coherency since all parts of the diaphragm are vibrating in concert without break up and delayed resonance.
Double-Sided Spiraling Coils
The diaphragm utilizes a spiraling pattern of flat aluminum conductors on either side of the driver. The double-sided design allows twice as many conductors to be placed within the magnetic field, which leads to higher sensitivity, better damping, and even drive force.
Diaphragm
OPPO’s planar magnetic driver diaphragm has 7 layers of thin materials that provide excellent performance, reliability, and longevity. The construction of the diaphragm ensures that it is very stable under thermal stress and vibration.
High Sensitivity
Many planar magnetic headphones have a sensitivity far below 100 dB and require very powerful amplifiers to drive. The OPPO PM-2 has a sensitivity of 102 dB, which allows it to pair well with both mobile devices and scale upwards when used with high end headphone amplifiers.
Purely Resistive Impedance
OPPO’s planar magnetic driver has a flat conductor pattern that does not have any inductive components. This eliminates inductance related intermodulation distortion, which is especially common in dynamic drivers with high impedance and a high number of voice coil turns.
FEM-Optimized Magnet System
An FEM-optimized magnet system with very high energy Neodymium magnets is used to maximize sensitivity and consistency of the applied force over the driver area.
Tests and Listening Impressions
The tests were performed with Audio-Gd Master 9, AG500 Power Regenerator, Sennheiser HD800, HiFIMAN HE-560, MSB Analog Dac, Oppo HA-1.
The song was a nice start to test these beautiful headphones. When the artists rub their guitars at the beginning of the song, PM-2 showed good texture and detail. The guitar plucks were very engaging, showing full body, impact and control. The soundstage was ok, but a little closed in. I enjoyed PM-2 on this song quite well overall.
I love planar bass and PM-2 does quite a good job here showing good impact, extension and control. They have good energy and PRAT and can easily engage you into the song. However, I’ve felt that was something missing in the treble region, taking from the air on top and from the details in that area.
Vivaldi – Autumn – Allegro (La Caccia)
The instrument sounded quite natural with good texture and body. The chords had good energy and vibration showing good detail, impact and extension. The soundstage was quite intimate, but I did enjoy the song quite well on PM-2.
The drums from the beginning were very impressive showing a good reverberation through the room while also presenting good depth and punch. The voices were nicely textured and had good presence throughout the song, both female and male. The depth / width of the soundstage were decently extended, but I felt I lost some height.
The authoritative drum was the first thing I noticed. I loved it’s impact and how low it went. The guitars were tingling the ear in a pleasant and musical way, but not as raw / tactile as HD800 does for example. Hugh’s voice had a good tonality and presence.
Planars rock and PM-2 is not an exception. Good PRAT, textured and rugged voice, very good drum impact and energy . Rock on!
Summary
Bass
I love the bass of PM-2. It goes very deep, it has very good impact and good control. It kind of reminds me of Audeze LCD-2 in this regard. It surely is one its strongest points.
Midrange
The midrange is rich, well detailed and textured. However, I did find the midrange to be a little recessed, especially on the upper range, but overall still very enjoyable.
Treble
The treble not the strongest suit of these headphones. On the long term, I didn’t find them sibilant or bright, but it did present a peak and a tzz aftertaste on some songs, usually noticeable on the cymbals but nothing too disturbing. Also, there were times when I often found it quite recessed, especially the lower treble. This also took some air from the soundstage, making it more intimate.
Transients
The transients are good showing strong attack and planar fast decay. This contributes to good PRAT and energy.
Voices
I found the voices to be very enjoyable on these headphones. They have a weighty presence in the song, with good extension, textures and natural tonality.
Soundstage
The soundstage is sometimes quite deep and pleasant but it misses some width and height.
Instrument Separation & Imaging
When the music gets crowded it feels that PM-2 can handle the heat, but it feels like it struggles a little. While the instruments are quite well distinguished from each other, they don’t have a lot of space between them.
Tonality
I found the tonality to be very pleasant from my point of view. I think that organic and natural describe the situation the best, with the exception of the peak that takes a little away from the naturalness of the treble.
Details
The details on these headphones are quite good, especially on the lower part of the frequency response, from the bass region to the upper midrange.
Conclusions
PM-2 is one of the best portable headphones I’ve ever heard. While they are open headphones, I found that they did offer a little isolation compared to other headphones in this category. It also comes in handy that they are very easy to drive.
You can even get decent sound quality out of a smartphone with them.
Overall I liked their sound signature and luxurious design, so if you want a good portable opened planar sounding headphones, you should definitely give PM-2 a go.
Pros
- Very good bass
- The midrange is quite rich and detailed specially on the lower part of the spectrum
- Good, natural voices with detailed textures and good presence
- Strong and quite fast transients
- Natural and pleasant tonality
- Good details
- Good imaging
- Good energy and prat
- Excellent build quality and looks
- Portable and easy to amp
Cons
- the midrange is a little recessed, especially the upper midrange
- recessed lower treble and the next region has a peak
- quite intimate soundstage which misses some air on top and some width
- would need a little more air between the instruments / layers
Leave a Reply