[Luckbad]

I'm going to be getting balanced cables to test with the Nighthawk via the Cavalli Liquid Carbon... whenever that amp shows up. Interested to see what it does to the sound, if anything.

 

[HiFlight]

As an old Magnapan fan from way back I know what you mean. To be honest, outside of the bass (which is much deeper and better defined than my old 1.6's) the NightHawks sound more like Maggie's than any of the planar headphones I've heard. Plus, the NightHawks are so damn comfortable that you'll forget you're wearing them and just get lost in the music. Put on a favorite album (I've got the Classic Records DAD of Something Else playing right now) and see if you find yourself listening to the whole album without even realizing it. That's what keeps happening to me, I put on a disc for a track or two and end up listening from front to back.

I couldn't resist listening to some of my favorites with the Nighthawks right out of the box. Yes, I am pleased to find that they do give me the same feeling as my Maggies. To actually hear a double bass sound like a double bass is truly a WOW moment! At this point, even without burn-in, they do exceed my expectations. It is just so easy to chill and listen to the music flow around me. In no time, I forget that I am actually listening to headphones.

Truly magic moments have been rather rare for me over the years that I have enjoyed my musical obsession, but I have to say this is one of them!

 

[ghostchili]

I just did a review of the Violectric V281 and the Nighthawk was one of the headphones I used.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/violectric-hpa-v281/reviews/13835

 

[longbowbbs]

  I just did a review of the Violectric V281 and the Nighthawk was one of the headphones I used.
 
http://www.head-fi.org/products/violectric-hpa-v281/reviews/13835

Ghostchili the review I copied the link to was from Ultra Fidelis in Wauwatosa on North blvd and 71st.

 

[ghostchili]

  Ghostchili the review I copied the link to was from Ultra Fidelis in Wauwatosa on North blvd and 71st.

I just tried it and it brought me to the review

 

[longbowbbs]

 

  Ghostchili the review I copied the link to was from Ultra Fidelis in Wauwatosa on North blvd and 71st.

I just tried it and it brought me to the review

Go to the top of the page and just click Ultra Fidelis.

 

[Jackson9696]

I couldn't resist listening to some of my favorites with the Nighthawks right out of the box. Yes, I am pleased to find that they do give me the same feeling as my Maggies. To actually hear a double bass sound like a double bass is truly a WOW moment! At this point, even without burn-in, they do exceed my expectations. It is just so easy to chill and listen to the music flow around me. In no time, I forget that I am actually listening to headphones.

Truly magic moments have been rather rare for me over the years that I have enjoyed my musical obsession, but I have to say this is one of them!

Congrats! These definetly have a "magic" about them and when I'm listening to them I find myself listening to the music rather than the details and individual instruments. I had a magical session with them the other night when I plugged into the technics 424 receiver that I just purchased and the pairing is absolutely fantastic! Listening to Diana Krall has never felt so intamate and I find it amazing that the nighthawk has superb resolution and transparency while being dark. Most dark headphones have a veil but these are very dark and sound as clear as a high end beyer!
The bass on these has tightened with burn in and the extra power I put behind them, and these remind me of an imax movie theater with how impactful the bass is, but at the same time the mids are the most liquid and smooth I have ever heard while retaining tons of detail.
These headphones are so addicting!

 

[Hachiko270296]

Does anyone know when the alternative pads come out? If they can being the mids up then I will def give them a look. I would love some velour pads!

 

[knowhatimean]

I couldn't resist listening to some of my favorites with the Nighthawks right out of the box. Yes, I am pleased to find that they do give me the same feeling as my Maggies. To actually hear a double bass sound like a double bass is truly a WOW moment! At this point, even without burn-in, they do exceed my expectations. It is just so easy to chill and listen to the music flow around me. In no time, I forget that I am actually listening to headphones.

Truly magic moments have been rather rare for me over the years that I have enjoyed my musical obsession, but I have to say this is one of them!

Congrats! These definetly have a "magic" about them and when I'm listening to them I find myself listening to the music rather than the details and individual instruments. I had a magical session with them the other night when I plugged into the technics 424 receiver that I just purchased and the pairing is absolutely fantastic! Listening to Diana Krall has never felt so intamate and I find it amazing that the nighthawk has superb resolution and transparency while being dark. Most dark headphones have a veil but these are very dark and sound as clear as a high end beyer!
The bass on these has tightened with burn in and the extra power I put behind them, and these remind me of an imax movie theater with how impactful the bass is, but at the same time the mids are the most liquid and smooth I have ever heard while retaining tons of detail.
These headphones are so addicting!

I don't think I ever really had any aural complaints about a headphone being 'Dark". I suppose how much
this characteristic is an issue for you that is dependent on the sound picture of what is going on in the recording!

When I first heard my stock Sennheiser HD800 I was overwhelmed by the fact that they were more about
producing the leading edge of whatever you were listening to. Orchestral phrasing really wasn't being allowed
enough time to resolve itself. Long story / short it took a lot of effort & a few leaps of faith to transform them
into my musical preferences specific voiced headphones. I think I may have even added just a touch of what
some people call "darkness" (I tend to think of it as "depth") to them.

In the long run how headphones are "Voiced" is going to be more important to how successful they are
in playing different Genres of music. In theory most headphones are designed to "work" playing all
Genres. They will do that, but they will be better for some types of music than others, simply because
different types of music are recorded vastly different than others.

 

[SearchOfSub]

 Not mediocre. Just not as good as the Nighthawk and the HE500's, which are outstanding. 

What has better soundstage the NH or the HE-500? Also which headphone do you find more emotional connected to music?

 

[JMCIII]

What has better soundstage the NH or the HE-500? Also which headphone do you find more emotional connected to music?

 
Having heard them both, I'll have to say the NightHawks offer a better soundstage and do a major league job of connecting me to the music. The HE-500's are a very good headphones, but, for my money, the NIghtHawks are the better choice. But you should listen to both and make the choice of the ones that connect YOU to the music.

 

[Hachiko270296]

AudioQuest NightHawk Mini Review
 
A quick one about myself. I'm a vocal/anime/gamer lover. I appreciate the human voice and feel I have a lot of experience with the mid frequencies. I've owned many headphones over the year, too many if you ask me and I have settled on some favs. My reason for trying the NH was because in intrigued me, it had something about it, this flare and uniqueness. This review is short as I have a big review for a small website that I'm working on, this is a taste I guess with the fat trimmed off. I'm a no bull**** kind of guy and  I won't tell you something sounds good when it doesn't. I also am very observant and I never let hype get to me.
 
Gear used 
Fiio X3II
E12
Vali
Ember 
Lyr II
iPod Classic
ODAC
Modi
Galaxy S6
iPhone 6+
 

Build - The build of the NH is stunning, it's probably the most beautiful headphone I've ever owned. Everything feels organic and well thought out. The liquid wood is gorgeous in person! The ear pads are soft but I'm a fan of velour mostly as leather tends to sweat my ears. I can wear the NH for about an hour or two then I get a bit irritated. The cables are decent but and although some have had issues, I've been fortunate enough to have two perfectly fine cables. They feel a  bit looser than I usually like but some will appreciate that. I feel like I have to be super delicate with these, I personally hate that but that's life. 
 
 
Sound
 
Bass - The bass hits pretty low, the semi open design really allows these to go a bit deeper but obviously this has drawbacks which I'll get into. They don't go as low as the Fostex TH900 or TH600 but they at least go as low as the Hifiman HE-500. The bass has a bloom to it, they can sound a bit muddy and it has a hump which will make this headphone a polarising phone. I didn't find it too have much texture, I'm a fan of a bloom but I felt it was quite over done to the point it becomes negative. Using high end amps help a tad but this was clearly the sound AQ wanted. 
Listening to faster music, the bass kind of held the phone back, I wanted to enjoy the bass but the music was too fast. I felt the NH was more suited to slow to medium tracks which don't have a fast, solid beat.
 
 
Mids - Before buying the NH. Most where saying that this NH has recessed and distant mids and I have to agree. I'm a big lover of mids, in fact all of my headphones are mid-centric due to my love for vocals. The NH's mids were too pushed back for me to enjoy. My top 3 fav headphones for mids are the LCD-2, LCD-3 and HD650. The NH is below them all. The HD650 is closer to the price range so I'll compare to them, they also; when driven with a good amp beat out the LCD's when it comes to mid seduction and beauty for me. The HD650 has a very real, haunting and surreal mids. The NH sounded like vocals couldn't escape and push through a barrier, like they are muted or compressed in comparison. The HD650 would be effortless and blend in with this space and then disappear for the next cue while the NH would sound like they are trying to breath. It's clear the semi open design mixed with the tuning is causing this. If I'm listening to a beautiful Japanese piece with gorgeous vocals the NH would honestly, make a mess of it. Mids are clearly not the focus here.
 
Treble - The trebs here is a little on the grainy side  but only a tad. It's quite relaxing but to me this is a open headphone trapped in a semi open design. It's warm, and rolled off. You don't get that sense of air or decay that a good headphone should have. It's rolled off, a bit crushed in and it's like compressed air in a tin. Now am I exaggerating? A little, it's hard to describe sound and this is how it sounds compared to my HD650. My LCD-2 is also guilty of a rolled off treble which sounds muted and compressed..but on a lesser scale. 
 
Soundstage - The overall  size is on the smaller size. I've heard worse here. It does a good job on imagining which was surprising but only when things were on the slow side. For gaming it didn't have the scale or subtle details I need in a phone.
 
 
It's a tough one because it's clearly a unique headphone,  I think it's sound is a hard sale here. Some will love it, some won't. If you are in the like it camp, I'm truly happy, it's a unique phone but it's just not for me. As a vocal student and lover of vocals these just don't perform well enough for me. I need that seduction and beauty, these just couldn't break into that but they are also tuned to be more to the masses but end up being a weird one. I blame myself completely, many said about the mids being pushed back but me being me, wanted to hear them for myself.
 
I feel sound wise, they are about on par with the Philips X2 and actually sound a bit closer to the X1 but with a warmer sound. For it's style, it sounds good enough but we are talking about a £500 headphone here, obviously a lot has gone into the materials but sound alone, I would say they fit around the lower mid-fi level. If the V-Moda M100 was semi-open, these would be pretty close.

 

[SearchOfSub]

AudioQuest NightHawk Mini Review

A quick one about myself. I'm a vocal/anime/gamer lover. I appreciate the human voice and feel I have a lot of experience with the mid frequencies. I've owned many headphones over the year, too many if you ask me and I have settled on some favs. My reason for trying the NH was because in intrigued me, it had something about it, this flare and uniqueness. This review is short as I have a big review for a small website that I'm working on, this is a taste I guess with the fat trimmed off. I'm a no bull**** kind of guy and  I won't tell you something sounds good when it doesn't. I also am very observant and I never let hype get to me.

Gear used 
Fiio X3II
E12
Vali
Ember 
Lyr II
iPod Classic
ODAC
Modi
Galaxy S6
iPhone 6+


Build - The build of the NH is stunning, it's probably the most beautiful headphone I've ever owned. Everything feels organic and well thought out. The liquid wood is gorgeous in person! The ear pads are soft but I'm a fan of velour mostly as leather tends to sweat my ears. I can wear the NH for about an hour or two then I get a bit irritated. The cables are decent but and although some have had issues, I've been fortunate enough to have two perfectly fine cables. They feel a  bit looser than I usually like but some will appreciate that. I feel like I have to be super delicate with these, I personally hate that but that's life. 


Sound

Bass - The bass hits pretty low, the semi open design really allows these to go a bit deeper but obviously this has drawbacks which I'll get into. They don't go as low as the Fostex TH900 or TH600 but they at least go as low as the Hifiman HE-500. The bass has a bloom to it, they can sound a bit muddy and it has a hump which will make this headphone a polarising phone. I didn't find it too have much texture, I'm a fan of a bloom but I felt it was quite over done to the point it becomes negative. Using high end amps help a tad but this was clearly the sound AQ wanted. 
Listening to faster music, the bass kind of held the phone back, I wanted to enjoy the bass but the music was too fast. I felt the NH was more suited to slow to medium tracks which don't have a fast, solid beat.


Mids - Before buying the NH. Most where saying that this NH has recessed and distant mids and I have to agree. I'm a big lover of mids, in fact all of my headphones are mid-centric due to my love for vocals. The NH's mids were too pushed back for me to enjoy. My top 3 fav headphones for mids are the LCD-2, LCD-3 and HD650. The NH is below them all. The HD650 is closer to the price range so I'll compare to them, they also; when driven with a good amp beat out the LCD's when it comes to mid seduction and beauty for me. The HD650 has a very real, haunting and surreal mids. The NH sounded like vocals couldn't escape and push through a barrier, like they are muted or compressed in comparison. The HD650 would be effortless and blend in with this space and then disappear for the next cue while the NH would sound like they are trying to breath. It's clear the semi open design mixed with the tuning is causing this. If I'm listening to a beautiful Japanese piece with gorgeous vocals the NH would honestly, make a mess of it. Mids are clearly not the focus here.

Treble - The trebs here is a little on the grainy side  but only a tad. It's quite relaxing but to me this is a open headphone trapped in a semi open design. It's warm, and rolled off. You don't get that sense of air or decay that a good headphone should have. It's rolled off, a bit crushed in and it's like compressed air in a tin. Now am I exaggerating? A little, it's hard to describe sound and this is how it sounds compared to my HD650. My LCD-2 is also guilty of a rolled off treble which sounds muted and compressed..but on a lesser scale. 

Soundstage - The overall  size is on the smaller size. I've heard worse here. It does a good job on imagining which was surprising but only when things were on the slow side. For gaming it didn't have the scale or subtle details I need in a phone.


It's a tough one because it's clearly a unique headphone,  I think it's sound is a hard sale here. Some will love it, some won't. If you are in the like it camp, I'm truly happy, it's a unique phone but it's just not for me. As a vocal student and lover of vocals these just don't perform well enough for me. I need that seduction and beauty, these just couldn't break into that but they are also tuned to be more to the masses but end up being a weird one. I blame myself completely, many said about the mids being pushed back but me being me, wanted to hear them for myself.

I feel sound wise, they are about on par with the Philips X2 and actually sound a bit closer to the X1 but with a warmer sound. For it's style, it sounds good enough but we are talking about a £500 headphone here, obviously a lot has gone into the materials but sound alone, I would say they fit around the lower mid-fi level. If the V-Moda M100 was semi-open, these would be pretty close.

Hello hachiko, I appreciate this review. Especially midrange comparison, I care much about vocals because most of my preferences in music have much to do with vocals. This was what I was worried about when people who do not like it was complaining about this as well. I thought I give it benefit of doubt because dragonfly DAC does a good job of pushing vocals through in the raw way to give you that connection, so I thought same house so similar sound, but I guess not. Thanks again,

 

[Jackson9696]

AudioQuest NightHawk Mini Review

A quick one about myself. I'm a vocal/anime/gamer lover. I appreciate the human voice and feel I have a lot of experience with the mid frequencies. I've owned many headphones over the year, too many if you ask me and I have settled on some favs. My reason for trying the NH was because in intrigued me, it had something about it, this flare and uniqueness. This review is short as I have a big review for a small website that I'm working on, this is a taste I guess with the fat trimmed off. I'm a no bull**** kind of guy and  I won't tell you something sounds good when it doesn't. I also am very observant and I never let hype get to me.

Gear used 
Fiio X3II
E12
Vali
Ember 
Lyr II
iPod Classic
ODAC
Modi
Galaxy S6
iPhone 6+


Build - The build of the NH is stunning, it's probably the most beautiful headphone I've ever owned. Everything feels organic and well thought out. The liquid wood is gorgeous in person! The ear pads are soft but I'm a fan of velour mostly as leather tends to sweat my ears. I can wear the NH for about an hour or two then I get a bit irritated. The cables are decent but and although some have had issues, I've been fortunate enough to have two perfectly fine cables. They feel a  bit looser than I usually like but some will appreciate that. I feel like I have to be super delicate with these, I personally hate that but that's life. 


Sound

Bass - The bass hits pretty low, the semi open design really allows these to go a bit deeper but obviously this has drawbacks which I'll get into. They don't go as low as the Fostex TH900 or TH600 but they at least go as low as the Hifiman HE-500. The bass has a bloom to it, they can sound a bit muddy and it has a hump which will make this headphone a polarising phone. I didn't find it too have much texture, I'm a fan of a bloom but I felt it was quite over done to the point it becomes negative. Using high end amps help a tad but this was clearly the sound AQ wanted. 
Listening to faster music, the bass kind of held the phone back, I wanted to enjoy the bass but the music was too fast. I felt the NH was more suited to slow to medium tracks which don't have a fast, solid beat.


Mids - Before buying the NH. Most where saying that this NH has recessed and distant mids and I have to agree. I'm a big lover of mids, in fact all of my headphones are mid-centric due to my love for vocals. The NH's mids were too pushed back for me to enjoy. My top 3 fav headphones for mids are the LCD-2, LCD-3 and HD650. The NH is below them all. The HD650 is closer to the price range so I'll compare to them, they also; when driven with a good amp beat out the LCD's when it comes to mid seduction and beauty for me. The HD650 has a very real, haunting and surreal mids. The NH sounded like vocals couldn't escape and push through a barrier, like they are muted or compressed in comparison. The HD650 would be effortless and blend in with this space and then disappear for the next cue while the NH would sound like they are trying to breath. It's clear the semi open design mixed with the tuning is causing this. If I'm listening to a beautiful Japanese piece with gorgeous vocals the NH would honestly, make a mess of it. Mids are clearly not the focus here.

Treble - The trebs here is a little on the grainy side  but only a tad. It's quite relaxing but to me this is a open headphone trapped in a semi open design. It's warm, and rolled off. You don't get that sense of air or decay that a good headphone should have. It's rolled off, a bit crushed in and it's like compressed air in a tin. Now am I exaggerating? A little, it's hard to describe sound and this is how it sounds compared to my HD650. My LCD-2 is also guilty of a rolled off treble which sounds muted and compressed..but on a lesser scale. 

Soundstage - The overall  size is on the smaller size. I've heard worse here. It does a good job on imagining which was surprising but only when things were on the slow side. For gaming it didn't have the scale or subtle details I need in a phone.


It's a tough one because it's clearly a unique headphone,  I think it's sound is a hard sale here. Some will love it, some won't. If you are in the like it camp, I'm truly happy, it's a unique phone but it's just not for me. As a vocal student and lover of vocals these just don't perform well enough for me. I need that seduction and beauty, these just couldn't break into that but they are also tuned to be more to the masses but end up being a weird one. I blame myself completely, many said about the mids being pushed back but me being me, wanted to hear them for myself.

I feel sound wise, they are about on par with the Philips X2 and actually sound a bit closer to the X1 but with a warmer sound. For it's style, it sounds good enough but we are talking about a £500 headphone here, obviously a lot has gone into the materials but sound alone, I would say they fit around the lower mid-fi level. If the V-Moda M100 was semi-open, these would be pretty close.

Very well written review! I honestly can't agree with any of it though, which makes me wonder if you got a dud. We both like the hd650, so the fact that you don't like the nighthawk is a bit odd. Have you heard more than one set of nighthawks? The closest thing I could agree with you was the bass, but even then I find it better than you described.

 

[knowhatimean]

Just a quick one today !

Comparatively, how do the NH earcups measure up to say the old style Hifiman HE-6 diameters.?

The reason I ask is I prefer using velour Earpads on all my cans. I absolutely prefer using a pair
of AKG 702 velour Earpads on my HE-6 & of course my HD800 has that (one of the few things on them
that Isn't necessary to be modded or removed) type of pad. ( I have a feeling that I would like the NH way more,then a "stock" Senn HD800 as my playback system's noisefloor is way too low for the Ring Radiated sound to *not be noticeable on all music that I listen to; I'm not so sure if I'll find much that I might think sounds as exceptional as my Ring Radiatorless 800s)

Well all that aside for now, are the NH cups
larger , slightly smaller... etc. ? Thanks !

(* This adds mechanically generated "resonance" (which while it may work at enhancing the sound of some music) which will mask important transients in wide dynamic Acoustical music . Make no mistake, this is generated resonance ) (My Equitech 1.5 Q BPT line conditioner lets me hear what is part of the recordings &
what is not)