[knowhatimean]

 

Sooo, while I'm on a price/performance jag, I'll finish up. My system is: NH+Pono Player+Silver Litz Type 2 cable. Total cost= $800. An endgame SYSTEM that fits in my pocket for $800! 

Why would some people say the Boost pads make for a much more expansive soundstage, while others say the US pads do? To my ears, the Nightowls lose a little of their magic with the US pads. The more I try them, the more I don't like them.

T he simple answer (well not really simple) is there are at least a dozen variables in what any of us consider to be the definition of all the different sound quality parameters we all talk about
(treble,bass,midrange, etc... & the "elusive" sound parameter the all powerful "Soundstage". I heard a few dozen (at least) different descriptions of what people feel constitutes "SOUND----
-----stage" . I normally end up disregarding all fbut a single handful of these descriptions as relevant to what I consider as a meaningful representation of SS. To confuse matters even more Recording Engineers all have a slightly different idea of what parts of what they've recorded is more important than others (I'm making a lot of assumptions based on all the popular music recordings I've heard through the years; I'm not listening to this music anymore).
 
What's magic sounding to one person may end up sounding like misguided,"same old, same old" to someone else. What's that important thing to remember about listening to music & what equipment to use to get you there...... It's largely Subjective, & the impressions of others can only take you so far. The best you can hope for is when you can relate to something that you've had similar reactions to.
 
I'm listening to my headphones through about $12k of playback equipment., so I can normally relate to only a very small portion of this thread without thinking "What are they talking about ?"

 

[shurealltheway]

T he simple answer (well not really simple) is there are at least a dozen variables in what any of us consider to be the definition of all the different sound quality parameters we all talk about
(treble,bass,midrange, etc... & the "elusive" sound parameter the all powerful "Soundstage". I heard a few dozen (at least) different descriptions of what people feel constitutes "SOUND----
-----stage" . I normally end up disregarding all fbut a single handful of these descriptions as relevant to what I consider as a meaningful representation of SS. To confuse matters even more Recording Engineers all have a slightly different idea of what parts of what they've recorded is more important than others (I'm making a lot of assumptions based on all the popular music recordings I've heard through the years; I'm not listening to this music anymore).

What's magic sounding to one person may end up sounding like misguided,"same old, same old" to someone else. What's that important thing to remember about listening to music & what equipment to use to get you there...... It's largely Subjective, & the impressions of others can only take you so far. The best you can hope for is when you can relate to something that you've had similar reactions to.

I'm listening to my headphones through about $12k of playback equipment., so I can normally relate to only a very small portion of this thread without thinking "What are they talking about ?"

Fair enough. I was simply wondering if there was an objective reason behind it. Just curiosity.

 

[Venture Guy]

Haha! That sentence is like an oxymoron.

It's a Silicon Valley colloquialism... Sooo, back to our original program. What's wild about these cans is that if you put US pads on them they sound like a TOTL planar magnet; if you put the Classics on, they sound beyond that! All for $350!!!

 

[Bitsir]

Just made a somewhat disappointing discovery.
 
My discovery is that the Nighthawk, with classic pads, sound better through a single Dragonfly v1.2 than it does with an added Magni 2 Uber.
 
 
I've A-B'd 10 times and another 5 for good measure.
 
At the same, moderately high volume, driving it with only the DF preserves articulation and imaging accuracy.
With the Magni 2 Uber added, bass control and quantity is improved but the loss of overall imaging quality and articulation weighs heavier by a fair amount.  
 
I think it may be that the Magni introduces some intermodulation distortion (and the added cable length) that becomes very apparent on a headphone such as the Nighthawk which has very little distortion to begin with. 
 
Edit: NEVERMIND. Turns out the RCA cable was wrongly marked; right was left and left was right. No wonder imaging was all screwy. However, I still think a solo DF has better articulation making it easier to, for example, make out the lyrics of a song.

 

[Venture Guy]

  Just made a somewhat disappointing discovery.
 
My discovery is that the Nighthawk, with classic pads, sound better through a single Dragonfly v1.2 than it does with an added Magni 2 Uber.
 
 
I've A-B'd 10 times and another 5 for good measure.
 
At the same, moderately high volume, driving it with only the DF preserves articulation and imaging accuracy.
With the Magni 2 Uber added, bass control and quantity is improved but the loss of overall imaging quality and articulation weighs heavier by a fair amount.  
 
I think it may be that the Magni introduces some intermodulation distortion (and the added cable length) that becomes very apparent on a headphone such as the Nighthawk which has very little distortion to begin with. 

I am working on an dac/amp for electrostats. The subtleties in dacs and amps are astounding. It all starts with having a reference transducer. Once you have that and know its sound inside and out, you can go about evaluating amps and dacs. These cans are lower distortion than most, which means the rig that sounded good with a crummier can may now sound crummy... 

 

[bugeyed]

  Just made a somewhat disappointing discovery.
 
My discovery is that the Nighthawk, with classic pads, sound better through a single Dragonfly v1.2 than it does with an added Magni 2 Uber.
 
 
I've A-B'd 10 times and another 5 for good measure.
 
At the same, moderately high volume, driving it with only the DF preserves articulation and imaging accuracy.
With the Magni 2 Uber added, bass control and quantity is improved but the loss of overall imaging quality and articulation weighs heavier by a fair amount.  
 
I think it may be that the Magni introduces some intermodulation distortion (and the added cable length) that becomes very apparent on a headphone such as the Nighthawk which has very little distortion to begin with. 

Could it be possible that you are overdriving the input of the Magni 2 Uber? 

 

[Bitsir]

  Could it be possible that you are overdriving the input of the Magni 2 Uber? 

Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by overdriving the input. Could you explain?

 

[Badas]

  Sorry, I'm not sure what you mean by overdriving the input. Could you explain?

If you put too many volts into the input on some amps the sound gets harsh.
 
I have to be careful of this. I have the Auralic Vega which pushes out a maximum of 4 volts into amp inputs. The spec for inputs is 2.5 volts. Some amps don't care and carry on happily. Some amps however go harsh.
 
In my case I own the Woo WA22 (No issue) and Violectric V281 (also no issue). These amps are fine. However I have used my Vega into a Woo WA5 before and it got nasty. In this case you just roll down the volume to a point that works (usually about 2/3's the volume).

 

[shurealltheway]

I can't even name another headphone with better bass quality. It's so tight and precise on these.

 

[Venture Guy]

I can't even name another headphone with better bass quality. It's so tight and precise on these.

that's why i'm curious to see how they are in comparison with z1rs... I just can't see them being more than 1% better.

 

[Gaikotsu]

I can't even name another headphone with better bass quality. It's so tight and precise on these.

I have some tracks that have extremely low frequency melodies that I had only heard through floor standing speakers and separate subs. I was not able to hear it through headphones until I got the NHs.

 

[Venture Guy]

 
I have some tracks that have extremely low frequency melodies that I had only heard through floor standing speakers and separate subs. I was not able to hear it through headphones until I got the NHs.

I have had the same experience. There was some video review that compared the NH and the Z1R. The reviewer said the Z1R had better bass than the NH. I say to myself "no way!".

 

[Gaikotsu]

  I have had the same experience. There was some video review that compared the NH and the Z1R. The reviewer said the Z1R had better bass than the NH. I say to myself "no way!".

It wouldn't the reviewer on Youtube who goes by "Z" would it?

 

[Venture Guy]

  It wouldn't the reviewer on Youtube who goes by "Z" would it?

I don't know the guy's name. Best I can remember it was on the Carbon thread...

 

[Venture Guy]

I think you're correct... Z reviews. Does he work for Sony?