[Rchandra]

The nighthawks are not headphones you use for mastering tracks. They are headphones you use to enjoy your music. For long periods of time.

 

[shonoob]

The nighthawks are not headphones you use for mastering tracks. They are headphones you use to enjoy your music. For long periods of time.

Sorry if i'm not allowed to stray away from nighthawks specifically, but could you recommend a pair of headphones that could fit the bill of being used for mastering tracks, whilst still having a comfortable/light frame?  I have tried the LCD-X, and while the sound was bar-none the best I've listened to, the weight and bulk was too uncomfortable for me to wear long periods.  As of right now I am currently on Beyerdynamic DT880 pro's, but would like to try something different.
 
Thanks again.

 

[x RELIC x]

Take a look at the ETHER Flow perhaps. Definitely comfortable and more balanced FR for mixing and the light weight and comfort are great.

 

[shonoob]

Take a look at the ETHER Flow perhaps. Definitely comfortable and more balanced FR for mixing and the light weight and comfort are great.

Those are some amazing looking cans, but are unfortunately beyond my price range at the current moment, I can go as high as $800 or so.
 
Thank you for your suggestion.

 

[bavinck]

Those are some amazing looking cans, but are unfortunately beyond my price range at the current moment, I can go as high as $800 or so.

Thank you for your suggestion.

Most recommend akg 701 for mixing. Very comfy.

 

[leaky74]

  Hello everyone!  I have a question to ask of Nighthawk listeners:
 
I am currently looking for a pair of cans specifically to mix and produce music on.  
 
The key criteria for the headphones is: Easy-listening (non grating highs that will fatigue me), relatively uncolored/neutral sound, and lastly; comfort for long listening sessions.
 
I read some-pages back of people attesting to the mixing capabilities on these cans, as they can expose mud in the bass frequencies of a mix etc., making it easier to realize and fix.  On the flip side, I have also read others say the Nighthawks are very colored, and aren't good for analyzing the true fidelity of a mix, due to the rolled off highs etc.
 
Can anyone give me their 2c on these cans, and how the nighthawks might fair for mixing use?
 
Thank you very much!

You might want to speak to @inthere I'm pretty sure he's a big advocate of the NightHawk for studio & DJ work (& he does that stuff for a living...)

 

[Gaikotsu]

Long time reader, first time poster.

I had to break my silence and lurking. I finally received my NHs and have been burning them in for almost 80 hours.  I cannot understand how anyone can say "burn in" doesn't exist after having bought these. It isn't a psychosomatic placebo-effect of simply getting used to their sound signature, which does take getting used to. These cans sounded absolutely terrible straight out of the box. They were horrendous in a blown speaker sort of way, not a sound signature way. The bass was lose. booming and sounded like it was coming out of a megaphone. The mids sounded like a bull horn and highs literally sounded as though they were played through a cardboard cone. It was painful to listen to them.  Snares came off so harsh that it felt like getting finger flicked in the ear drum.  That isn't the NH sound signature, I promise you! So I handed them over to my wife who doesn't give two flips for sound quality and she thought they were broken, because when I opened the case the headband had disconnected from the left cup during shipping.  Thankfully, nothing was broken and it snapped back into place. So I let them sit playing lounge for about 3 hours.  When I picked them back up and gave a listen, the sound was richer but uneven. So the "burn in" continued.  Each day I picked a different genre of music to burn them in with. About every 10 to 15 hours it would hit a milestone of richness and detail. Then I downloaded the Pink Noise and Sine Wave loop from here and let that burn in over night (goodness the high end of that wave can be heard through a heavy blanket, closed door, and several rooms away!) When I awoke and began to play my various mix...I was astounded at how rich and free the sound now is. It's as if it needed to experience the complete range of sound to stretch out the rubber surround and the driver membrane.  Honestly, if the sound gets any better beyond the 80 hour mark these will be magical to say the least. Oh, and I did hand them back over to my wife this morning who couldn't believe they were "fixed."  If a true skeptic can be convinced, then I have conclude it isn't just me and it isn't just a myth. The NHs MUST be burned in, no question. Yes, I understand that much of that burn in, is the cables, but the driver has to be broken in as well.

One other note, while playing the sine wave, you can hear the drops in the mid high range.  It isn't a smooth transition. You can hear the sound level drop and then suddenly increase when it gets to the top end.  It matches the graph data that some have captured. I get how pads can change the sound, but a pad wouldn't cause that type of drop, whatever effect it has it would be constant because it doesn't change when the sound does.

To the curious here is the configurations I use them in:

Primary Rig
Hardware: Samsung Galaxy S2 Tab
Software: Neutron Music Player (which if you haven't tried it, I urge you to pull the trigger. It is an audiophile's dream! I used USB Audio Pro and it is lifeless in comparison.)
Audioware 1: AudioQuest DragonTail out. (Carbon)
Audioware 2: AudioQuest Jitterbug
DAC/AMP: AudioQuest Dragonfly Red

Secondary Rig
Hardware: PC
Software: Winamp / Fubar 2000 (honestly, there is no difference)
Audioware 1: AudioQuest Jitterbug
DAC/AMP: AudioQuest Dragonfly Red

 

 

[TheTrace]

I'm probably one of the few that didn't bother with burning in, I don't notice much of what people are saying about the sound straight out the box, sounded fine for me. Was using it straight out my phone (Axon 7) and then my Chord Mojo. Too early to give a mature opinion on them, just received them on Christmas.

Shouldn't the neutron player also sound identical to USB audio player? I always see conflicting info on one being better than the other.

 

[Gaikotsu]

"Shouldn't the neutron player also sound identical to USB audio player?"

Not really. The Neutron Player allows you to alter the sound hardware on your device, such as Hardware Latency, Software Latency, Dither, Phase Inversion, Subsonic and Ultrasonic filters, DSD over PCM, etc.  The main feature is that it can play music files in 64 bit. What it does is take the 32 bit file and re-samples it into 64 bit. At this point it can pick out nuance in the music as well as apply effects (if desired).  It has a robust EQ and allows you to change CPU utilization. 

To squeeze the most out of the player turn on resampling to Audiophile, enable 64-bit processing, use the Normalization option to allow the software to determine what the best Gain vs DC Offset would be to get the absolute most out of each file.

You can read more about its tech: http://www.neutronmp.com/technology.html

 

[Gaikotsu]

"Shouldn't the neutron player also sound identical to USB audio player?"

Perhaps on the surface, yes.  However, Neutron Player allows you make changes to your devices hardware such as latency, Phase inversion, Dither, Subsonic & Ultrasonic filters, DSD over PCM, and more. The primary feature is enabling 64 bit processing of 32bit files. It re-samples the 32 bit file until it has picked out all the nuance. The extra bandwidth then allows you to apply DSPs such as Dither, etc. I did a blind test between the two apps and you can easily hear a difference.  Sometimes it is subtle and other times glaring.  It just depends on the song/file.

It wouldn't let me post a URL to the player's feature set.

I used USB Audio Pro solely because AudioQuest recommended it for use with the Dragonfly because it had a driver that could send audio to USB.  Then Neutron Player added a Dragonfly driver.  I urge anyone to do an A/B comparison to the two.

Again, I am using the 64-bit sampling, using the MAX CPU load and am using Dither as well as their Normalization feature.  It scans each file and generates a Gain vs DC offset for maximum output specific to each song.

 

[eyoon]

I'm probably one of the few that didn't bother with burning in, I don't notice much of what people are saying about the sound straight out the box, sounded fine for me. Was using it straight out my phone (Axon 7) and then my Chord Mojo. Too early to give a mature opinion on them, just received them on Christmas.

 
I'm with you on this.  I thought my NightHawks sounded just fine out of the box and didn't hear any drastic changes after burning them in with pink noise for several days.

 

[Gaikotsu]

I would be curious about what equipment you are driving them with.  Perhaps that is the key? I am using portable equipment, are you using a dedicated headphone AMP and or DAC?  What music source are you using?

 

[JohnBal]

I didn't think they were absolutely horrible out of the box. The most significant thing for me was the mid range suck out. Female vocals especially sounded quite off. But I thought they did improve significantly after break in. After 150 hours and up, I think they are a fantastically balanced phone for me. They have me wanting to upgrade my amplification. But the ball and chain said that will need to wait.

 

[Gaikotsu]

When I bought the BOSE Quietcomfort 25s they sounded 100% the same as they did from day one to nearly two years now of near constant use. Break in did absolutely zip for those phones. 

Other than equipment/source what other correlation can there be as to why some do not experience an out-of-the-box audio nightmare and some find bliss. Could there be a similar scenario that one finds in the computer silicone wafer industry? Where the silicone density is tested with one slice and the rest of the brick is marked with that rating despite the fact that some portions have better density and capability than the one tested. This lead to the concept that your CPU could be more powerful than rated. So, could it be possible some driver parts are simply at peak quality out-of-box while others need to be "worked?" In manufacturing there is "Engineering Tolerance," could that be enough?

I have found graph data that proves the concept of "break in" even if it appears minimal.



 

 

[HipHopScribe]

The human mind is much more changable than anything that goes into the construction of any headphone, so I'm more inclined to think that burn-in is mostly (probably almost entirely) psychological. Even the mood and circumstances of the first day you hear them can affect your impressions, never mind coming from other headphones that sound very different. I put burn-in up there with expensive cables and 32-bit audio as not much more than audiophile nonsense. The Nighthawks are a particularly divisive headphone because they sound so different from so much of what's out there, which is probably why so-called burn-in would seem to have a bigger effect for them than for some other headphones.