I just reviews the Violectric V281 http://www.head-fi.org/products/violectric-hpa-v281/reviews/13835 and the Nighthawks were one of the pairings I tested. I agree about the fantastic value but found them on the definite dark end of the spectrum.

Outstanding write up...the most comprehensive ive seen on a pair of headphones that ive been verrrrry interested in since first reading about them on Innerfidelity.   Thanks for taking the time to share your findings!
 
Peace .n. Living in Stereo,
 
3ToF

@JMCIII Great review. This is by no means a criticism but after reading your glowing assessment, I was somewhat surprised to find that you gave the headphones a lower rating for "Audio Quality" and "Value"? I'm just curious. Thanks.

Thanks for your review.  I really like your writing style and thoughtfulness.

I confess that I listened to these right out of the box and was hugely disappointed. I would possibly be interested in giving them another shot, maybe at the Nashville meet. 

Nice review! Could'nt stop reading. I'm a natural born speaker user as well...and you got me extremely curious of the NightHawks!

Nice review! But why such a low rating for sound quality? Sound quality would be the main reason, at least for me, to buy the Nighthawk.

@muxamed Ignore the ratings under Review Details on every review on this site. They're super broken. I've done several reviews and they never match what I try to set them to.

My ratings were pegged all down the line. If something is showing up differently, its from here, not from me. To me, both "Audio Quality" and "Value" are off the charts. I found these to tick all my boxes - and this from a speaker guy.

@Luckbad and @JMCIII
Cheers for the clarification. There's indeed something buggy about this comments box as well. I have to wait a few minutes after clicking in this box before I can start entering any comments. Maybe something for the mods to look at.  

I had the same issue with my review. I believe it could be an average of all reviews.

I love my Senny 650s. Will I love the Nighthawks?

glrtrgi, I have no idea. Your ears will answer that question. But you should definitely give them an extended listen. 

Nice review ! I particularly appreciate the absence of the typical "completely subjective"(& mostly comparative values based on headphone characteristic preferences) such as " Dark, Bright, Open,
Closed... & several others .

I read a review recently were the reviewer faulted the headphones for making the string section of an
Orchestra sound " Too rosinny" at the expense of that term I absolutely despise ""Airiness". Between Rosinny & "Airiness" which do you think is a musical value that actually exists ? I think occasional listeners of Acoustically based music may not totally understand how the sound created this way has
different sound characteristics than electronic music. As a result they're so used to hearing the totally
different articulated musical notes if they don't hear "Airiness" in acoustically based recordings they thing
something is missing !

It's not ! You may like the effect of "Airiness" but it's mostly not completely part of the music & it will mask some of the inner transients of Orchestral recordings. I find the sound of inner Orchestral staging
much more interesting than an overblown wall of sound from the Orchestra . & the scale of the Orchestra still remains (When the Composer wanted you to hear the total dynamics of the Orchestra)

I just replaced my senn 650's with the nighthawk.  So far I'm loving it.  I don't buy into the burn-in voodoo snake oil, but it seems like the more I listen to these, the more the sound opens up.  I'm finding the sound sig very similar to the 650's-- highs have just the right amount of extension, a little emphasis in the mids, and thick, yet tightly controlled bass.  The biggest difference is the comfort factor.  These are by far the most comfortable full size cans I've ever worn.

bloodydoorknob, you say you don't believe in the "burn-in voodoo snake oil" yet you're finding that the more you listen (which translates into burn-in time) that things are opening up. I'd say you're hearing burn-in do its thing. Cool huh?
 
All I can say in my defense of fully buying in is, I just had to get a replacement cable from AudioQuest for the NightHawks I reviewed. I pulled the cables I'd had, that I'd "burned-in" along with the headphones for what is now well over 300 hours off the NightHawks and replace them with the new cables. The sound SUCKED in comparison. Closed in, muffled, muddy, weak woolly bass, no detail. lack of sparkle in the highs, and a total loss of the wonderful midrange. How can this be if the cables don't need burn in. It's going to take me the better part of a week and a half to burn-in these new cables, but I fully expect when that burn-in time is up, my NightHawks will sound just as my review described them.

You can seriously shorten your cable burn-in hours by running a few 6hr cycles of the Purtst Audio
Design System Enhancer CD. I ripped this CD to a drive that I play through my Auraliti PK100 Digital
File Player & then just let the 1TB of Orchestal music play continuously while I'm not there listening !

The only hitch is that the retail price of this disc is now listed at $119 . I believe I paid about 38 or 39 dollars when I got it quite a few years ago. See if you can find a way to come across this disc (maybe
another AB contributor can help you out) (I would offer to help but I'm limited to tablet use at the moment)

knowwhatimean, I have one particular disc I use for burning in equipment or cables. It's the Ayre "Irrational, But Efficacious" disc and the white noise track set on repeat.
 
I also have the Densen "DeMagic" disc, but I mainly use this one to clean the signal path every month or so in my entire system.
 
The Ayre disc has always worked for me, and I'm a believer (hard as it is to wait) that there is no substitute for time. But thanks for the tip. If I ever run across one of those discs for a reasonable price, I'll pick it up.

Yup ,I agree that's why I'll just let my DFP just keep cranking away playing countless hours of Orchestal
Rachmaninov, Arnold, Mahler, Ravel, Bax.... Etc

Playing music with a huge amount of dense wide dynamics really helps things along. ( I do wonder
though if the static period of no signal going through the cable has any similarities to the aging
process capacitors go through after multiple turning on & off cycles )

I have just had a chance to listen to a pair at London CanJam. I have not read a single review beforehand. Just saw a few interesting photos (those 'Liquid Wood' ear cups do stand out) and a few words about the pair being special. I walked through the first hall and listened to HIFIMAN HE400S which I liked very much. The price point of USD 299 was especially attractive, but when I saw a pair of NightHawk and tried them with my Korg MR-1 and MR-1000 units listening to native DSD128 recent jazz recordings, I have to say that their superior comfort in addition to full, spacious soundscape and effortless delivery of all tonal nuances and dynamic details lead me to an immediate decision to get a pair to be used for my work. I need to listen to hours of music in preparation of tracks for release and these headphones will transform my working experience. On the second day I listened to Nighthawk again just to confirm my initial findings and it only reinforced my growing attachment to this item of audio luxury. As far as I see it, a gem and quite a bargain at USD 599.