[Cotnijoe]

Hey all, i got a loaner unit of the Nighthawk thanks to TTVJ.

Thought Id share my review here.
http://www.head-fi.org/products/audioquest-nighthawk-headphones

 

[leomitch]

Well Cotinjoe you cranked out a truly well written and thoughtful review. I have owned these  most excellent headphones for nearly two weeks now and I agree with you in every way. The more you use and break-in these Nighthawks, the better they sound, although I do have a small quibble in my case, I thought they sounded very good from the get go. They have over 220 hours on them now and the term 'very good' is an understatement. Smooth, grainless in the highs, mellow mids and stunning bass and the sound stage is pretty close to three dimensional.
The four point anchored ear-cups, quality materials and light weight make them super comfortable, good to look at and they smell real good! 

I have yet to try them with my Benchmark 1 USB DAC,but I will do that soon and report back here. It will be interesting to see if the different DAC has a noticeable and notable effect on the sound.
Thank you mate for a fine review.
Anyone interested, Dale Thorn has his review up on YouTube...it is well worth a look.
 
Leo

 

[grizzlybeast]

Can anyone compare these to the Sony Z7, Zmf Vibro/Blackwood , MH40, HD650 or Pandora Hope VI
Specifically in bass quality,quantities,
Soundstage
Vocals

?????pretty please.

@beagle I know you have had atleast two of the mentioned. A freind found them muddy and boomy and not worth 600. He called them Beats. But I am not sure if he heard the final product.

 

[290752]

Hmm maybe it's finally a good time to expand my headphone arsenal

 
Current owners: can you compare them to LCD2 or EL-8 and any fostex th variation please? I want to see how the nighthawk compares to my current headphones because I cant audition them without driving far.

 

[leomitch]

Can anyone compare these to the Sony Z7, Zmf Vibro/Blackwood , MH40, HD650 or Pandora Hope VI
Specifically in bass quality,quantities,
Soundstage
Vocals

?????pretty please.

@beagle I know you have had atleast two of the mentioned. A freind found them muddy and boomy and not worth 600. He called them Beats. But I am not sure if he heard the final product.

That is the only seriously negative comment regarding the Nighthawks I have heard so far, unless he was listening on pre-production Nighthawks...or he hit a one off from the factory.
 
Leo

 

[Cotnijoe]

@beagle I know you have had atleast two of the mentioned. A freind found them muddy and boomy and not worth 600. He called them Beats. But I am not sure if he heard the final product.

 
I've noted that the Nighthawk isn't for everyone, as they do have quite a bit of a colored sound. However to call them Beats is simply an over exaggeration or plain ignorance.
 
You could make an argument that of all the 600 dollar headphones available, the Nighthawk is most similarly tuned perhaps to the bass heavy toys, but that's about as similar as they get.

 

[grizzlybeast]

I asked him and I misquoted him. He heard em at Newport and didnt say they were boomy and muddy but did mention them not being a 600 sound also he did say beats.

I am curious though. Just because I am listening to the ZMF Omni and want a hp that has some midbass to compliment it. The Omni is a tour unit but this seems up my alley too.

 

[fzman]

   
I've noted that the Nighthawk isn't for everyone, as they do have quite a bit of a colored sound. However to call them Beats is simply an over exaggeration or plain ignorance.
 
You could make an argument that of all the 600 dollar headphones available, the Nighthawk is most similarly tuned perhaps to the bass heavy toys, but that's about as similar as they get.

 
While I agree that 'nothing is for everyone', taste and practicality always raise their (ugly) heads.  Where I strongly disagree is when you refer to the Nighthawk as having "quite a bit of a colored sound".  If they were as colored as you say they are, I would find it hard to believe that they could do so many things as well as you say they do in your review.  You may not like their presentation, and I have no issue with that whatsoever, but when you say things like: 
 
 
 
" I also find one other little caveat with the Nighthawk. It’s a rare issue, but one nonetheless. Because it does have a more present lower mid range, I found that male vocals that sing at a lower register tend to have a little unnatural tone and timbre to it. Well to be specific, I only had this issue with one artist I listened to with the Nighthawk – Passenger. I’m a big fan of Passenger, as I find the tone of his voice to be unique and beautiful, with some great lyrics to his music. He also sings in a very limited range. With the Nighthawk, his voice often has an unnatural breathy sort of resonance to it, which I can’t really get over. Just to reiterate though, I didn’t find this issue with any other vocalist though – I’m sure there are other cases, but it’s not a prevalent issue. I found vocals and instruments to be beautiful and, again, silky smooth."
 
 
If it was only one, it's probably the recording, not the Nighthawk.  Just sayin'.  
 
 
Also:
 
".....because the Nighthawk can make almost any recording sound beautiful. Take Taylor Swift as an example. Taylor basically has no high range, and whenever she tries to rift in her high register at the climax of her songs, her voice often has a texture to her voice that sounds strained and, frankly, a little unhealthy. With the Nighthawk, she sounds absolutely effortless. Of course, this does come at a cost. While I feel that the detail of the Nighthawk is actually quite good, when you put it up against the more detail oriented HE560, it becomes clear that the Nighthawk lacks some texture and micro-details in exchange for its absolutely fluid sound."
 
 
I am using your Taylor Swift example to make a point about neutral vs. natural, and the whole notion of so-called "forgiving" sonic signatures in general, not as a criticism of you ( I was once married to a woman who had an MFA in voice from Northwestern University, and she was very forthcoming in sharing her views about singers and recordings).  Seems to me that (and trust me,I am NO fan of Ms. Swift's voice or music), what is happening is that the strain in her voice creates a signal that creates lots of distortion in some other drivers, making her singing sound worse than it is.  The Nighthawk seems notg to be, thereby making her sound better....   Analytic, bright sterile components make bad recordings unbearable because they are adding a layer for grit, grain and glare on top of what is ready a bad recording.  With lower distortion, bad recordings become at least somewhat more tolerable-especially if the music on them is worthwhile..
 
 
 

 

[Tagjazz]

Wow! Considering these are brand new headphones released, this thread is a little subdued. Trying to figure if this is a good thing or a bad thing. Are new owners just too busy listening and enjoying them or is there a lack of enthusiasm.
 
I am really interested in these as a contrast to compliment my Oppo PM3's (which I love). Would these do well for listening to jazz, classical and acoustic music? Is it crazy to have headphones that have very different sound signatures given that your brain needs some 'burn in' time?
 
Thanks in advance for your impressions and advice.

 

[Mark Up]

Yeah, I'd hope to hear more from new owners. HD650, LD-2, PM-3 comparisons welcomed.

 

[leomitch]

  Yeah, I'd hope to hear more from new owners. HD650, LD-2, PM-3 comparisons welcomed.

 
All I can tell is that after over 300 hours of listening,  the Nighthawks make my music, jazz and classical, sound better than through my Shure 1840 and Sennheiser 558s. The Nighthawks in concert with my excellent LHL Pulse X Infinity DAC produces the smoothest, most focused and musical sound I have ever heard. The highs are well defined without being brassy or  sharp edged.  The timbre of the cellos, violins, violas and double basses is warm and resonant...one can almost smell the wood and varnish. Flutes, piccaloes, clarinets and other woodwinds playing in the  altissimo registers are never squeaky or overly brilliant, while the lower registers are mellower and more heart-felt  than from any other source I have heard to date. If there is something even better, it better hurry because I am 80 already! LOL! The mids are slightly forward especially with female voices and the male voices are centred and clear with no muffling that these old ears can detect.
Do I work for AudioQuest, no! Is Skylar Gray my friend, no! But I will say with all candor, these headphones are for me, with emphasis on the me, the very best musical instruments I have heard so far in this long musical life of mine and I thank Skylar for these excellent headphones before my trip is over. And a big hug for AudioQuest  for backing his genius. They did not make a mistake.
 
Cheers
Leo

 

[sticki3000]

A hello from Germany !
 
Got my Nighthawk, one of the first in europe, a week ago.
First i heard it a few month ago at a Hifi fair, but the pre-production sample sounds awful to me - no room, flat, muffling....
 
The good news: the final production series sounds great - much better then the samples !
Listening is done with a marantz HD-DAC1 (the look also matches perfect) and my Huawei P6 Cellphone - the Nighhawk achieves high volume level direct
connected to the telephone - great.
 
Still burning in, but its clear, that a "coloration", like decribed here in other posts, is there and i ask me, if this changes after hundreds of hours...?
 
I am not shure, if i can live with it permanently...
 
The headphones i like to compare with the Nighthawk are the SONY MDR-R10 and MDR-CD3000 - the Nighthawk is in some way a "clone" of this first headphones with biocellulose
technology. Many of the construction details of this phones are "reborn" in the Nighthawk.
While the MDR-R10 is a class of its own, the MDR-CD3000 had nearly exact the same price like the Nighthawk - without the "discoloration" in sound - 20 Years ago...
 
I am still searching for the reasons for the Nighhawks problems, for example, with deep voices. It seems the be a little better, when the outside grill on both sides is sligthly tipped with
a finger in central. My theory until now is, that an part of the case is swinging in this low mids exactly out of phase with the music signal and so it "wipes out" a part of
the low mids. What are you thinking about this theory ?
 
Another problem for me is the "smell" of the new Nighthawk - a strong "burned pastic" smell - its still there after a week ... hope it goes away with some time....
 
Best regards (and excuse my poor english),
 
Ul

 

[Mark Up]

Thanks for the reply Leo. It sounds like it has the qualities of headphones I'd like. I think Sticki could be referring to a possible housing resonance that has some kind of phase cancellation with vocals in tracks he'd noticed. The vocal he noticed dipping could be due to a node created by that vocal being the same resonant frequency of the housing (as all housings are resonant, it's a matter of damping to prevent that). I wonder what makes up that chemical smell he is wary of. I've smelled that with other new things and am hyper sensitive to smell as I am to sound. Has anyone else noticed that smell? I'm not sure if that would be a deal-breaker. I hope for Sticki that the smell will pass with time.

 

[leomitch]

@MarkUp
The smell on mine is slowly disappearing. I believe it comes from  the glossy coat they have used. If it  is like other varnishes and finishes, it should be gone relatively soon.
 
Leo

 

[leomitch]

Can anyone explain to me what coloration they are talking about in such negative tones. I guess I am just easy to please because to me there is nothing that sounds bad about these ear goggles. For me the music is pure and clear, detailed but natural, musical without being glassy or pitchy. 
These are the headphones I have waited for since I began listening. I can't grasp what they mean when it is stated that the sound of the Nighthawks is not for everyone. Just getting too old and onery!! Cranky and stubborn! 

 Skylar, you are my hero mate! Thank you!
 
Leo the ancient