Assume there's gonna be plenty of talk when these are eventually released so figured I'd start a thread as there's new info today. They finally have a price, $1,099 & $699, and order date (at least for the PM-1) of mid-April.

 

http://www.oppodigital.com/headphones-pm-1/

http://www.oppodigital.com/future/

 

 

"In addition to the OPPO PM-1, we will also release an OPPO PM-2 model which will be a more affordable version of the premium OPPO PM-1. The OPPO PM-2 will have very similar performance 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."

Edited April 3, 201412 yr by blessingx

If what is stated about the PM-2 is true, why get the PM-1?

 

The OPPO PM-2 will have very similar performance 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."

 

Brinkmanship, perhaps?

Edited April 3, 201412 yr by wink

Marketing, maybe?  

Isn't one of the selling points weight and comfort? Maybe they made compromises there...

 

Anyway i'm sure the shill army will be deployed soon to make people want the more expensive one.

Edited April 3, 201412 yr by Riotvan

How different is this from the likes of Audeze and Fostex?

 

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.

 

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.

I could envision a world in which I like these, but not one in which I own them.

Well thank fuck finally, the cats out of the bag. It made me cringe reading the Oppo thread over on the other site. Guess my price speculation was about right. Between $600-1200. Should the PM-1 become successful with sales and attention (no doubt it would) Oppo might release another model priced bit higher but Oppo is usually conservative about there pricing to quality/performance factor ratio, so maybe for not so much more.

Maybe the PM-2's are less shiny and doesn't come with the fancy wood box. lol

Be intersting to see how these measure once Tyll snags a pair.

They got the look right.

They got the look right.

 

Yeah, and so did this guy:

 

Jason sent me an email this AM, Oppos on the way!

hurrah

Yeah, and so did this guy:

 

 

There's no way he isn't choking the chicken out of shot.

If what is stated about the PM-2 is true, why get the PM-1?

 

Brinkmanship, perhaps?

 

i think companies have more success when they market the cheaper product as being "as good as the more expensive one" than when they market the more expensive product as being "not any better than the cheaper one"

 

Those that want to spend $1k on headphones will still get the more expensive pair. Those with just $500-600 to spend will be happy they got something as good as the $1k model.

 

also, the PM-1 has lambskin earpads and the PM-2 has synthetic

Edited April 4, 201412 yr by justin

Fostex seemed to be pushing buyers to the more expensive model by setting the prices so far apart. Here it's the opposite; maybe because Oppo's new to this.

the "why not just spend a little bit more.." strategy?

Fostex was playing "why settle for less," and I think you're right about Oppo.

 

also, the PM-1 has lambskin earpads and the PM-2 has synthetic

Must be some $400 lambskin earpads.

 

I suppose Stax did the same with the 507 as to the 407

and, the AKG K712 as to the K702.

Whenever I see multi-tiered audio product announcements, I am always reminded of the scene from "Factotum":

 

Auto Parts Warehouse Owner> Now you see the cartons. We have three different types of cartons. Each one printed differently. This is for our "Super-durable" break shoe, this is for our "Super" break shoe, and those are for our "Standard" break shoe. If you run out, there's more cartons over here. And these are the break shoes.

 

Hank Chinaski> They all look the same. How do I tell them apart?

 

Auto Parts Warehouse Owner> You don't. They are all the same. You just divide them into thirds.

Edited April 4, 201412 yr by jpelg

Maybe Hologram Bukowski as Oppo spokesperson?

Edited April 4, 201412 yr by blessingx

Guess my price speculation was about right. Between $600-1200.

That is some ace fucking prognostication there, Nostradamus.

 

How different is this from the likes of Audeze and Fostex?

 

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.

 

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.

 

 

 

They took the advantages of a huge driver surface area and threw it out the window by covering most of the driver and porting it through a smaller circular hole.

i didnt listen to these at new york as i assume i'll have a better opportunity later, but from the impressions it sounds like they're going for that mass market sound

Does that mean it'll have excessive treble that gets touted as "incredible detail"? I'd be surprised if they could do that with orthodynamic technology...though I've only heard the LCD2's and the HE400 to date.

Edited April 8, 201412 yr by nopants