[mbwilson111]

felt that the NH's were too warm and lacking treble.

I never felt that.

 

[Wes S]

I think the treble is where the nighthawks, really shine. With my Jotunheim balanced, they have some of the smoothest, most natural sounding treble I have heard. Interesting how we hear things differently!

 

[BubbaJay]

I feel like the treble gets a bad rap most of the time. Once you become adjusted to their sound signature the treble actually has a nice sound to them. They sound crisp and snappy when need be and have plenty of detail. Now with my Magni 3 & Modi Multibit setup, the NH treble sounds better than ever.

 

[betula]

You need time to adjust to NH's sound. It is very different to all headphones. Once you are there, it won't let you go.

 

[Joong]

NHs have so much tonal density in there that the treble seems to be relatively weak.
All other musical contents begin to appear through seemingly weak treble of NHs.
In consideration of the rich musical contents, the warm and weak treble can be easily justified once you have been adjusted or re-trained by NHs.
I have really noticed that there are winds in so many different colors through NHs among overly emphasized strings by other phones in a big band like orchestral music. Because of these characteristics of NH you can really enjoy those big band music.

 

[George Taylor]

I'm selling my Nighthawk Carbons. If any are interested please PM me.

 

[Jasonaudio23]

Ok guys, I have yet another set of impressions from CES, this time for the Nighthawk. I've also posted this in the other (larger) thread for the Nighthawk.

I listened to the Nighthawk connected to an Oppo HA-1 amp/DAC combo, as well as to an HTC One smartphone.

I'm just going to say this right off the bat - I don't particularly care for the Nighthawk. It's not that it's bad, but to me it does not stand out among the competition at the price point it will be in (I believe $700).

Bass is only good, but not great. There's lots of it, but I don't feel it is particularly well-controlled, and to me it doesn't extend very deep (at least not as deep as some of the planars I have heard, including the Hifiman HE-400i and up or even my modded Fostex T50RP). The bass does not bleed into the mids.

Mids are good, but nothing home to write about. They're clear, and they are present, but I'm not sure if I could write anything else about them. Highs are also clear (very much so), but once again to me unremarkable (especially compared to something like the Final Audio Design Pandora Hope VI, which is extremely detailed and realistic without being harsh). Highs are not harsh however, being relatively smooth. The Nighthawk can keep up in fast-paced and complicated music, but it's not the best I have heard in this department. The Nighthawk is relatively airy, but you won't mistake it for a open headphone. To me, the mids and highs are clear but seem a bit sterile, and just seem to lack that realism factor that I find with other great headphones (I don't know if it is because the mids and highs seem to lack a bit of weight, or what, but I just don't feel like I'm there in the performance as much as with other headphones).

There also seems to be some kind of subtle weird colorations going on in the mids and highs - for example, some brass instruments would occasionally sounded a bit off to me when I listened to the Nighthawk.

Soundstage is ok. I can definitely say that you won't get a holographic presentation with the Nighthawk - it's very clear that you're still listening to a headphone. The Nighthawk's soundstage is not particularly wide - maybe a bit bigger than the HD650, but still falls a bit short of my modded T50RP, and is definitely smaller than my HE-400i's. Imaging is decent, as there doesn't seem to be any "holes" in its soundstage, but to me it's not as precise as say, the Sennheiser HD650 and HD598. Very disappointing to me though was the lack of depth in the Nighthawk's soundstage. It pretty much has no depth at all. (I know that semi-open headphones can at least have some depth to their soundstage, like I have discovered with my modded T50RP).

I feel that overall, the Nighthawk has a slightly V-shaped sound signature. You have a lot of bass and you have those clear highs, but mids aren't particularly recessed. Maybe I'm just not a fan of this sound signature.

Comfort is good on this headphone. The suspension headband does its job well in distributing weight across your head. It's not particularly heavy overall among all headphones, but it's definitely not as much as a featherweight as Sennheisers are.

Overall, while the Nighthawk isn't bad in any area, I don't feel that it particularly stands out either. With other great headphones, I can name some particular aspect(s) that really captured my attention, but I can't do so with the Nighthawk. For example, using the headphones that I heard at CES, the Final Audio Design Pandora Hope VI at $700 does particularly well with presenting an extremely detailed, clear, and realistic (especially with brass instruments) treble. The Sony MDR-Z7 at MSRP $700 (street price lower than that) sounds particularly airy for a closed headphone (I actually think somewhat airier than the Nighthawk, which seems to be semi-open), and strikes a nice balance between being detailed enough and being (somewhat) warm, alluring, and relaxing (non-fatiguing) in its sound signature. My Hifiman HE-400i at $500 has extremely good quality bass that digs deep and is well-controlled, and has some of the best mids that I have heard. But I can't find a single aspect of the Nighthawk that is particularly noteworthy to me.

They look good

 

[Wes S]

They are definitely a love it or hate it.

 

[BubbaJay]

I feel like that if you enjoy the HD650 then you'll probably like the Nighthawk. They don't sound that similar other than the fact they're both a warmer sounding headphone, but they do both scale up very well. From listening to them out of just my X5II to using the Magni 3/Mimby combo it's like night and day, they sound so good with my little Schiit stack that I feel like I'm done upgrading my source material for quite a while now. I was using my Elear probably 80% of the time but now it's more like 50/50 between the Elear and Nighthawk because the NH sounds so much better now and it's all from a little $99 amp and that just blows my mind.

 

[progfan2]

Looking for Nighthawks. If anyone is interested in trading, have a pair of near mint Meze 99 Classics to trade and will add $.

Thanks

 

[waynes world]

I feel like that if you enjoy the HD650 then you'll probably like the Nighthawk. They don't sound that similar other than the fact they're both a warmer sounding headphone, but they do both scale up very well. From listening to them out of just my X5II to using the Magni 3/Mimby combo it's like night and day, they sound so good with my little Schiit stack that I feel like I'm done upgrading my source material for quite a while now. I was using my Elear probably 80% of the time but now it's more like 50/50 between the Elear and Nighthawk because the NH sounds so much better now and it's all from a little $99 amp and that just blows my mind.

You've got me interested in the Magni 3/Mimby combo. Do you wish though that you could listen to the NH's balanced?

 

[quisxx]

Sorry to ask what may have already been answered, but Do we know yet for certain if these are the same driver's used in the fostex cans? If so which x00, emu, th600, th610, or th900?
Thank

 

[mbwilson111]

Sorry to ask what may have already been answered, but Do we know yet for certain if these are the same driver's used in the fostex cans? If so which x00, emu, th600, th610, or th900?
Thank

Nighthawk drivers are not and have never claimed to be Fostex drivers. Has someone said they were? Just wondering where this question is coming from.

 

[quisxx]

Not saying audioquest said it, but many folks suspected they were fostex when they released.

 

[groucho69]

Sorry to ask what may have already been answered, but Do we know yet for certain if these are the same driver's used in the fostex cans? If so which x00, emu, th600, th610, or th900?
Thank

Um Whaaaa???