[Mediahound]

  I will have an opportunity to audition the Nighthawk tomorrow evening at the Music Matters event at SoundWorld. I'll post my impressions. If they sound as amazing as they LOOK I will expect to be blown away! Hope to get my hands on the EL-8 as well. The only Audeze cans this boy can afford!!

I wonder how the Nighthawks compare to the EL-8 closed version. 

 

[money4me247]

  I wonder how the Nighthawks compare to the EL-8 closed version. 

I personally was not too impressed with the closed EL-8. I would strongly recommend doing an audition to see if it fits your tastes prior to purchase.

 

[ati832]

to me I dont think the nighthawk is a middle class headphone at all its looks and sound quality to me seems to be in the summit fi headphone territories the oppo pm3, and the el8's, th600's are mid tier to me not the nighthawks despite there price tag.

 

[Mediahound]

  to me I dont think the nighthawk is a middle class headphone at all its looks and sound quality to me seems to be in the summit fi headphone territories the oppo pm3, and the el8's, th600's are mid tier to me not the nighthawks despite there price tag.

They don't have the micro detail of 'summit' headphones like the LCD3's or HD800's for example. If they sound just as good to you though that's great, you can save a ton of money 

 

[ati832]

 
They don't have the micro detail of 'summit' headphones like the LCD3's or HD800's for example. If they sound just as good to you though that's great, you can save a ton of money 

will I already own the hd800 and the audezes and if you compare all the top tier headphones they all have different sound quality for example the hd800's is great at bringing the detail out of the music however a th900 sounds a better headphone than it, as it is musically better to listen with its full bass notes however is not as good as the hd800 in other area's this is what I meant, the nighthawks are a darker sounding headphone but still top tier to me.

 

[Shure or bust]

Audeze el-8's win.

 

[Jackson9696]

I had the chance to compare the the other day, and I really believe it comes down to personal preference. I myself, absolutely loved the nighthawks, so much that I almost bought them at full retail which I never do. The el8 was good, but was dry, thin, and a hazy in comparison to the nighthawk. The nighthawk is liquid smooth from top to bottom, and never gets strident. The el8 may be better for some classical, jazz, or acoustic if the listener craves air behind the notes, but overall I was hearing more micro detail and texture in the nighthawk despite it's very dark tuning. Quite an accomplishment by audioquest if you ask me.

 

[virg1505]

I'm new here, but saw this thread and thought I'd toss in my 2...
 
I auditioned both the EL-8 and the Nighthawk today for about 45 min. Both sound very good, but had stark contrasts:
 
The Nighthawks are going to please someone who wants more bass - by more, I mean more than natural; enhanced. The bass bled into the mids for sure, but they do sound very good, just not as much for a purist.
 
The EL-8 was far more natural, though as many have commented before, a bit bright. I think the bright can be tamed with the right amp pairing or maybe burn in; I don't know how much play the ones I tried had. I liked the EL-8 much more and found the lower end to be much tighter and accurate. It isn't lacking mind you, but not for a bass-preference person.
 
The Nighthawk was way more comfortable, which says something because I didn't mind the EL-8 at all. But the EL-8 is heavier and more noticeable than the Nighthawk.
 
I did find a very big difference on the EL-8 depending on the music. Listed to metal, jazz, pop (which I hate) - Beyonce's new stuff, Alecia Keys (like her); found the bass much more punchy and enjoyable than with metal, though the metal was so tight.
 
I used Audeze's Deckard amp to drive the two and went back and forth for a straight 45 min. I was SO impressed with the EL-8 that I'm seriously thinking of ordering them this week. FYI - I'm new to high-end headphone audio. Have always been a home stereo guy with some very nice gear, but need to down size. Decided I would go the headphone route so I'm learning a lot here.
 
One other thing - I come from a planar / electrostatic background as well, so I lean toward an open, planar HP. Think I'm leaning toward the EL-8 and oppo ha-2...

 

[inthere]

EL-8 closed has rolled off mid bass and lightly boosted highs which give great clarity. Nighthawk is a very polarizing headphone because it's very flat and nobody knows it. Bass heads think it's bass light and audiophiles think it's bass heavy.

Nighthawk has very smooth non fatiguing treble and a better soundstage than the EL-8, but you can get a much better soundstage on the EL-8 if you put padding under the ear pads. Still not as good as the Nighthawk soundstage, but very close, and I'm talking about the EL-8 closed, not the open headphone.

In the end it's a matter of personal preference, EL-8 has a more conventional high end tuning with rolled off bass and boosted treble to highlight detail and Nighthawk's designer has stressed from the very beginning that most high end headphones have boosted treble and it sounds like marketing crap to most of us at Head-Fi, but in my own testing I found it to be true.

I love both approaches so I bought both headphones. Yes, I know the EL-8 is not neutral and it has boosted treble but it sounds so sweeeeeeeeet. It has the ability to make crap recordings sound great because it removes bass bloat and highlights detail. When I want to hear what was actually recorded, I get the Nighthawk and even though its neutral it's musical bliss because it's not thinned out or spotlighted, I can turn it up louder without worrying about listening fatigue and hell, some records are really magical the way they were mixed, bass bloat and all.

 

[JMCIII]

  I'm new here, but saw this thread and thought I'd toss in my 2...
 
 
 
I auditioned both the EL-8 and the Nighthawk today for about 45 min. Both sound very good, but had stark contrasts:
 
I used Audeze's Deckard amp to drive the two and went back and forth for a straight 45 min. I was SO impressed with the EL-8 that I'm seriously thinking of ordering them this week. FYI - I'm new to high-end headphone audio. Have always been a home stereo guy with some very nice gear, but need to down size. Decided I would go the headphone route so I'm learning a lot here.
 
One other thing - I come from a planar / electrostatic background as well, so I lean toward an open, planar HP. Think I'm leaning toward the EL-8 and oppo ha-2...

 
Going "back and forth" really doesn't allow one to catch the full flavor of either headphone. I'd have recommended you listen to an entire album on each and then listen to it again on the other to get a real feeling for how each headphone is over extended listening.
 
Oh, and I love planer speakers myself (still kicking myself for allowing myself to be talked into selling my Magneplaners), and have heard (and reviewed) planer headphones from Audeze, HiFiMAN and Oppo, I still ended up with the NightHawk's as they just sound like real music to my ears. But, we are all of us different, and your choice is as valid as mine.... Enjoy.

 

[inthere]

Going "back and forth" really doesn't allow one to catch the full flavor of either headphone. I'd have recommended you listen to an entire album on each and then listen to it again on the other to get a real feeling for how each headphone is over extended listening.

Oh, and I love planer speakers myself (still kicking myself for allowing myself to be talked into selling my Magneplaners), and have heard (and reviewed) planer headphones from Audeze, HiFiMAN and Oppo, I still ended up with the NightHawk's as they just sound like real music to my ears. But, we are all of us different, and your choice is as valid as mine.... Enjoy.

I own over 40 headphones and I completely agree about giving each headphone its own time to get its "flavour"

The Nighthawk is my favourite headphone and gives a magical listening experience every time, but if I were to go back-and-forth rapid fire with my Ether C it would sound muddy. Given time on its own though you realise it's not muddy at all and in fact has all the same micro detail, but presented in a much more musical natural way.

Of course many will say the Ether C sounds more neutral and natural because it's cleaner and removes unpleasant frequencies, but that's not the way the songs were recorded. But I enjoy each headphone for what they bring to the table and appreciate each unique signature

 

[Jason Bishop]

@virg1505 Did you audition the EL-8 open or closed back?

 

[virg1505]

I auditioned the open-back EL-8 and ended up buying them. I use them every single day now and I love them.
 
I did go back to the Nighthawk's to try them out a couple more times and they do sound really good, but to me they were unnatural on the low end. Not bad, just not my thing.
 
FWIW - I also ended up emailing audeze, asking them how I could purchase a second, standard cable for the phones just to have on hand. They replied back within a couple hours, asked me for my address and just sent a spare cable to me, no charge. That was awesome!

 

[UpNorth]

I had a listening session with a friend in the wonderful Headphonebar shop in Vancouver. We started with the Nighthawk and went all the way up the chain to the Focal Utopia. (That's simply out of this world, by the way.) I own a 2016 vintage EL-8 closed back and a Beyerdynamic T-90 and these formed my standard of comparison. I cannot be precise about the music we heard since my friend was the potential purchaser and chose the tracks out of his iphone 7. It also meant that my friend listened more extensively than I did. The cans in this range were being run from a Dragonfly Red.

The big plus for the Nighthawk is comfort. It is truly one of the most comfortable pair of cans I have ever used. Their sound was rich but, I fear, however, rather muddy. The first cut I listened to was a Blues piece that tended to be echoey. This was very, very noticeable in the Nighthawks. I asked the owner if he had an EL-8 ready to go for comparison. He only had the open back version ready to go. It increased the clarity and diminished the echo greatly. It was not, I think, that the Nighthawk was simply rendering the cut more accurately. I heard the same cut later through the Focal Utopia and a Mytek Brooklyn DAC. The EL-8 resembled it much more closely.

My friend listened more extensively than I did, as I mentioned. His verdict was that he loved the Nighthawks until he tried other cans and then went back to them. He too felt they suffered by comparison.

My own preference is for clarity. If you are similar, I think you might prefer the EL-8, as I did.

A final aside: listening to the Focal Utopia was a form of self torment. I will never be able to lay out the cash for equipment like that. But the step before the Utopia was the Focal Elear. It too was wonderful and far less expensive. I think the law of diminishing returns might set in between the two Focals for me.