[kman1211]

The Nighthawk has been scaling a bit on better gear, it's still the same signature tonight but there's some separation improvements. The mids still have hay boxy feeing though, that's due to the semi closed design plus the tuning.

The HD650, this thing is a beast. It just keeps improving. It straight out beat the Mrspeakers Ether I borrowed and it sounded as good at times, as my HE1000.

While the Nighthawk made some improvements the HD650 peed all over it, not even a contest! That speed of the HD650 driver is pretty crazy.

I tried the HD650 on the Dragonfly and the ODAC after and I can see why some people are saying they like the Nighthawk better, I never realised how bad the 650 sound on entry level gear. Grab yourself a good DAC and the 650 will match pretty much anything out there.

The Nighthawk had really impressive bass on everything I tried. The Mojo with the ember on high gain was pretty special.

The HD 650 does sound bad on underpowered gear and definitely does scale a good deal. Don't really agree that the HD 650 scales more than the Nighthawks based on my experience with high-end gear, I just found the Nighthawks easier to make sound good as they are less demanding of amplification and have a much flatter impedance curve. I found the Nighthawks more revealing of the system than the HD 650 imho. Most Senns have rather odd impedance curves, this makes them rather picky of the system as many systems can't power them properly. A good DAC also makes a big difference of course. Tuning of a headphone definitely plays a big role and I get the feeling people consider different things good. I do find it interesting how different peoples opinions on headphones are even on the same gear. 

 

[PJDubyaM]

Three days into my Nighthawk burn-in period. Itching to find out what you lot are talking about.

But I will be patient.

Oh yes. Patience.

 

[KLJTech]

While the Nighthawk made some improvements the HD650 peed all over it, not even a contest!
 

 
That statement should have been placed in your ad selling the NighHawks! That's a great tagline. 

 

[Hachiko270296]

No one is interested so I have nothing to lose Haha

 

[JMCIII]

Three days into my Nighthawk burn-in period. Itching to find out what you lot are talking about.

But I will be patient.

Oh yes. Patience.

 
Look, as you've probably gathered, the NightHawks are not going to float everyone's boat (we have some people on this thread who seem to stick around just to crap on the NightHawks). They may not, in the end, float yours. But I think they will and if you, like me and many others, find that they do meet (or exceed) your expectations - you're going to be a very happy camper. But give them their burn in (but if you sneak a listen, it won't kill you....lol) and they'll offer the best they have.

 

[PJDubyaM]

Look, as you've probably gathered, the NightHawks are not going to float everyone's boat (we have some people on this thread who seem to stick around just to crap on the NightHawks). They may not, in the end, float yours. But I think they will and if you, like me and many others, find that they do meet (or exceed) your expectations - you're going to be a very happy camper. But give them their burn in (but if you sneak a listen, it won't kill you....lol) and they'll offer the best they have.

Haha, thanks chap. When I auditioned a (barely burned in) pair, I loved them. Just so musical. Money down straight away.

Fascinating to read how polarising they are. Very much looking forward to giving them a proper listen. I'm psychologically primed to love them, so I'm almost certainly going to land on the pro-NH side of the fence.

 

[Hachiko270296]

Three days into my Nighthawk burn-in period. Itching to find out what you lot are talking about.

But I will be patient.

Oh yes. Patience.

You actually believe in that rubbish? The Nighthawk will sound the same regardless just like any headphone after a day or less use.

 

[PJDubyaM]

You actually believe in that rubbish?

It's no-lose. As far as I see it, it logically doesn't matter if I believe in it or not - by being patient, if there's a benefit, I'll benefit from it. If not, no harm done.

A bit like religion, really.



...except I'm aethiest.

 

[Loquah]

You actually believe in that rubbish? The Nighthawk will sound the same regardless just like any headphone after a day or less use.

Call it what you want, but I found the NHs very congested and flat-sounding out of the box. Not so the next morning after leaving them on all night.

I'm not one for extended unattended burn-in though. I like to listen while they burn.

 

[Hachiko270296]

Call it what you want, but I found the NHs very congested and flat-sounding out of the box. Not so the next morning after leaving them on all night.

I'm not one for extended unattended burn-in though. I like to listen while they burn.

Think it's all in people's heads to be honest. My Nighthawk has been replaced 3 times, had 2 here at one point. Both sounded the same. Thing is the signature takes getting used to. Once you are used to it things start getting more open. When I switch to other phones, boom, they are congested. The brain is a powerful thing.

 

[teofilrocks]

No one is interested so I have nothing to lose Haha

If you were in the US I would have been interested. Bought a pair off eBay a week ago. Still waiting for them to ship...

 

[Loquah]

Think it's all in people's heads to be honest. My Nighthawk has been replaced 3 times, had 2 here at one point. Both sounded the same. Thing is the signature takes getting used to. Once you are used to it things start getting more open. When I switch to other phones, boom, they are congested. The brain is a powerful thing.

How could that be when I listened, was unimpressed, left them playing overnight and put them on the next morning with different results? I could only have adapted to them if I listened to them in between.

Regardless, let's not get the thread bogged down in sound science debate. Whether it's brain burn-in or actual burn-in, the result is NHs sounding better with time.

 

[Hachiko270296]

The mind is very complex, that's all I'm saying..

 

[Loquah]

Very true

 

[SearchOfSub]

My finding with NH and HD650 so far. So after I've read some comments today about owners of NH saying they liked it at frst, but decided to return it after further use, I got curious again and this time decided to try tracks I've never heard before or long forgotten. Long story short my conclusion is this. First and foremost it really depends on the track. Some tracks HD650 do better and on others NH do bettdr. But, generally speakinh, if your thing is listening to instruments without much vocals involved, and like brighter tone of music, then HD650 will do.But if you are into vocals as main stage of the track, then NH will be better. And darker, and slower songs will be much better with NH. It has a bit of romance in its tone and suits late night female vocal listening nice. Hence the name "Night" Hawk I'd like to think. It's also richer and lusher sounding than HD650, but HD650 better with bringing out instruments better and sound a bit more real to me. It's also cleaner sounding.

NH will be more forgiving then HD650. Both don't hurt my ears and are smooth enough, but NH ofcourse smooth'er. Musicality wise HD650 good too, but once you start not paying attention to sound only and start doing other stuff associated with music, i.e, like watching music videos which involves visual as well, you will find NH is just very good with flow and rythem and better than HD650 in musicality. it just "flows" better in the backround.

So I take it between the two it really depends on what you listen to and what you look for, but in the end my thing is with vocals mostly as taking main stage, so I prefer NH.

Compare to low budget desktop speakers, I can compare the NH to the sound of Klipsch Promedia 2.1 sound that's still one of the best of all time in budget desktop speakers. But NH ofcourse better in all departments compare to Klipsh. It's just has a bit of tube characteristic in its nature. But it's not syrupy, it's a good tube sound done right.

The HD650 more of Bose companion series 5 speakers, cleaner and brighter than klipsch. But I don't think hd650 better than companion 5.

So in the end the name "Night " Hawk makes sense to how it sound and represents the signature. Clearly this isn't an engineering fault for those that may make it sound to be (there are few out there), but it's what the designer intended it to be. I actually enjoy the tone of AQ and their NH.