[inthere]

Please help me understand why audioquest would produce such a high end headphone with such a low impedence? I thought the higher impedence eliminated a lot of the background noise.

I have listened to these phones i am not sure how much time they have been burned but i really liked them. I was considering buying but i know there are many awesome phones in this price point.

Seems like all headphone companies have been steering in the direction of low impedance easy-to-drive cans ever since Beats blew open the portable market.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

 
Seems like all headphone companies have been steering in the direction of low impedance easy-to-drive cans ever since Beats blew open the portable market.

 
And they're discovering that it's much more viable now. If the system isn't bad there shouldn't be any noise to speak of. The era of needing giant amplifiers is coming to an end and I'm a huge fan. 

 

[inthere]

  And they're discovering that it's much more viable now. If the system isn't bad there shouldn't be any noise to speak of. The era of needing giant amplifiers is coming to an end and I'm a huge fan. 

 
 Well the one thing keeping the NH from becoming my end game portable is the fact that it's semi open thus not *quite* ideal for taking on the road even though it actually leaks less than Beats 1.0. 

 

[waynes world]

 
 Well the one thing keeping the NH from becoming my end game portable is the fact that it's semi open thus not *quite* ideal for taking on the road even though it actually leaks less than Beats 1.0. 

 
Yup, they leak a bit according to my girlfriend who often tells me to "please turn your Nighthawks down" lol.

 

[dmhenley]

   
 Well the one thing keeping the NH from becoming my end game portable is the fact that it's semi open thus not *quite* ideal for taking on the road even though it actually leaks less than Beats 1.0. 

Yes - makes sense. I use mine in my office, so they're not travelling.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

   
 Well the one thing keeping the NH from becoming my end game portable is the fact that it's semi open thus not *quite* ideal for taking on the road even though it actually leaks less than Beats 1.0. 

 
I'm not talking about portable, per se, but just the fact that we don't need to be spending dumb money on amps any more. It's a flagship-level headphone that can run off of a phone and plays at full quality out of a cheap little USB DAC/amp combo. I'd never wear them on an airplane or anything, but you can use these VERY easily sitting on the couch with a laptop.

 

[waynes world]

   
I'm not talking about portable, per se, but just the fact that we don't need to be spending dumb money on amps any more. It's a flagship-level headphone that can run off of a phone and plays at full quality out of a cheap little USB DAC/amp combo. I'd never wear them on an airplane or anything, but you can use these VERY easily sitting on the couch with a laptop.

 
Yeah, as long as my girlfriend isn't sitting on the couch beside you!  

 

 

[bettyn]

   
I'm not talking about portable, per se, but just the fact that we don't need to be spending dumb money on amps any more. It's a flagship-level headphone that can run off of a phone and plays at full quality out of a cheap little USB DAC/amp combo. I'd never wear them on an airplane or anything, but you can use these VERY easily sitting on the couch with a laptop.

What I love is listening to my Questyle QP1R with my Nighthawks: No other Dacs or  amps required.

 

[inthere]

Was a bit disappointed with my QP1R at 1st-it doesnt seem to be as powerful as my Fiio X5 and the sound quality difference is not exactly prohibitive-certainly not what the prices would indicate witv QP1R being $899 and the X5 being $250

 

[SomeGuyDude]

Was a bit disappointed with my QP1R at 1st-it doesnt seem to be as powerful as my Fiio X5 and the sound quality difference is not exactly prohibitive-certainly not what the prices would indicate witv QP1R being $899 and the X5 being $250

 
It's funny being here versus other audio forums because of the "prestige" of amplifiers. Hop into car audio forums and everyone pretty much understands that as long as an amp isn't producing distortion then it's fine. You'll find guys with really expensive speakers and fairly economical amplifiers because an amp isn't anything but, well, an amplifier. If it produces enough clean power to drive a speaker as far as it can then... that's all you need. The bottleneck of any system SHOULD be the speakers, not the amp, not the DAC.
 
Putting an amplifier capable of powering a home theatre on the Nighthawks is completely pointless. There's no such thing as "scaling up", either the amp is giving the driver enough clean power or it's not. Either the speakers can be pushed to their highest potential volume without distortion or they can't. Just because you put stronger and stronger amplifiers in front of speakers doesn't mean they're actually receiving any more power. I would put down money that if I put six amplifiers behind a curtain and let someone listen to all six through the NH, ranging from say the Dragonfly to a TOTL Schiit Stack or what have you, as long as the volume was normalized at best you might be able to hear minor differences.

 

[adpo]

   
 I would put down money that if I put six amplifiers behind a curtain and let someone listen to all six through the NH, ranging from say the Dragonfly to a TOTL Schiit Stack or what have you, as long as the volume was normalized at best you might be able to hear minor differences.

Contrary to that, I've found the Nighthawks to be quite transparent to source chains because of how good they are. While in theory, amps should effectively be wires with gain and unnoticeable levels of distortion, not all amps are created equally. While I wouldn't go as far as to say that the Nighthawks would benefit from a big hulky amp the same way an HE-6 should, I will say that it will point out the, albeit minor, differences in soundstaging, dynamics and sound signature between amps.

 

[SomeGuyDude]

  Contrary to that, I've found the Nighthawks to be quite transparent to source chains because of how good they are. While in theory, amps should effectively be wires with gain and unnoticeable levels of distortion, not all amps are created equally. While I wouldn't go as far as to say that the Nighthawks would benefit from a big hulky amp the same way an HE-6 should, I will say that it will point out the, albeit minor, differences in soundstaging, dynamics and sound signature between amps.

 
Again that's just a matter of if there's any dirt in the signal. Not only won't the Hawks benefit from a big hulky amp, they can't. Extra potential power doesn't mean extra sound quality. There's a ceiling.
 
Any differences between amps would not be some linear gradation of low to high quality, and the fact that there are people on here saying they prefer the Dragonfly to anything else with theirs is just proof positive of that. So let me back up and rephrase and say that maybe you could hear that the six amps in my hypothetical are different, in no way would people be able to put them in order of price.

 

[knowhatimean]

I had planned on "earmarking" about a $k on a SS headphone amp I'd recently been reading about as a few of the comments pushed my interest buttons . As it turns out I had a HP amp sitting in my "Audio Equipment Hoarder's Closet" that is sounding exceptional , with less than a full hour playtime, with my NH.

I've had a sneaking suspicion that the Tube HP amp I've been using really wasn't transparent enough to give me all the subtliness of tonal quality that my Metrum Hex DAC is capable of . The amp I've been listening to, a McCormack Micro Integrated Drive, is bringing a significant increase in the amount of fine musical detail that the HP amp I was using(even with the tube set I finally thought worked ideal in it) couldn't. I know for a fact that the music system configuration I was using when I was using the Micro Drive was nowhere near as capable of giving me what my current system can.

I would definitely have to agree that it's not so much about how much power you throw at the NH that determines the SQ, as their sensitivity is very high & at the opposite side of headphones like the HE-6 (which are about 20db less sensitive). I'm pretty "stoked" at how good this Micro Drive sounds, but it makes sense that it should being designed as a "clean, just above Line current" headphone amp. That's all the NH needs.

This McCormack piece of equipment isn't currently being made anymore, but if you can find one in good condition (Or in your closet), it's worth a listen. (& you can save yourself some serious $$$ for detailed sound)

 

[inthere]

The way I do it is bring my Nighthawks and/or favorite headphones to meets/Can Jams and listen myself. Most are very similar but only two have "stuck out" as being "outstanding" or "jaw dropping"
and clearly different from others. 
 
One is the Audio Technica ATH-5050: http://www.head-fi.org/t/749555/sneak-peek-of-audio-technica-at-ha5050h-pre-production-unit which is not out and may never come out and when it does come out it will be $6000+
 
The other is the Headamp GS-X mk2: http://www.headamp.com/order/index.htm which I dunno what's going on with them, I saw a red version at two meets, Can Jam London and Axpona, but it's not on their web site. Also no description of the "mk2" version and no photos. 
 
Anyway, nothing from Schiit has ever impressed as anything sticking out from the crowd, including their TOTL Ragnarok. I want to be blown away by the Cavalli stuff as everyone keeps saying it's the best, but when I listen at meets on my own headphones I'm not getting the magic everyone talks about. I've listened to the Liquid Gold, Liquid Crimson, Liquid Glass, and even a prototype of the new Liquid Tungsten didn't impress. I have Liquid Carbon which sounds excellent. Headamps Blue Hawaii also blah. Also unimpressed by Chord's "Dave" amp which cost 10k+. 
 
I always take a backpack with at least 3 headphones to test; at Axpona I brought Ether Cs, Nighthawks, Sines, and HD650s. 

 

[kman1211]

  The way I do it is bring my Nighthawks and/or favorite headphones to meets/Can Jams and listen myself. Most are very similar but only two have "stuck out" as being "outstanding" or "jaw dropping"
and clearly different from others. 
 
One is the Audio Technica ATH-5050: http://www.head-fi.org/t/749555/sneak-peek-of-audio-technica-at-ha5050h-pre-production-unit which is not out and may never come out and when it does come out it will be $6000+
 
The other is the Headamp GS-X mk2: http://www.headamp.com/order/index.htm which I dunno what's going on with them, I saw a red version at two meets, Can Jam London and Axpona, but it's not on their web site. Also no description of the "mk2" version and no photos. 
 
Anyway, nothing from Schiit has ever impressed as anything sticking out from the crowd, including their TOTL Ragnarok. I want to be blown away by the Cavalli stuff as everyone keeps saying it's the best, but when I listen at meets on my own headphones I'm not getting the magic everyone talks about. I've listened to the Liquid Gold, Liquid Crimson, Liquid Glass, and even a prototype of the new Liquid Tungsten didn't impress. I have Liquid Carbon which sounds excellent. Headamps Blue Hawaii also blah. Also unimpressed by Chord's "Dave" amp which cost 10k+. 
 
I always take a backpack with at least 3 headphones to test; at Axpona I brought Ether Cs, Nighthawks, Sines, and HD650s. 

I agree, nothing from Schiit has ever impressed me either. I liked Cavalli amps but never felt they lived up to their hype, honestly preferred Eddie Current and Donald North Audio amps. The really expensive Nagra HD DAC I recently heard was something special. Quite like the Violectric V281 as well.