[xRaptorxPunisher]

After having spent some more time with this odd bird I keep coming back to the word: natural. Disregarding the frequency response there’s something there..something that echoes real life sounds in that you feel the bottom of every note..the individual - sometimes erratic moving harmonics render in THE most natural way I’ve ever experienced over a dynamic headphone.
It’s basically the piano that gives it away. I often miss the beautiful black abyss of the bottom end of a piano over headphones. I find it rather difficult to convey in words, but there is a fullbodied and information-packed “aura” attached to almost any key and chord on the piano...in real life.
What I get with this high flying bird is something akin to that; a thing that stirs within in oh so beautiful a manner. Having run through 80+ headphones during the last couple of years, and listened to thrice that, I still feel this carbon based fowl, along with the Ollos, takes me the closest to Horowitz’ lap.

What more? Yeah...sure. Once your brain gets a handle of the darker coffe-like presentation it starts noticing the small details - the cough in the back at the studio/the raspy emanation of a pick scraping at an upright bass-guitar string..and the world opens up - it’s as if someone opened up a window in your head and now you get air and this incredible almost tangible soundstage.
Right there..you’re wearing the most comfortable speakers imaginable.
The bird has found it’s nest, that’s for damn sure!

I like the Nighthawk for some of its qualities but how you can call it natural I’ll never know! Still each to their own and glad you found something you enjoy!

 

[MidSmoothness]

Hoarding up the NH and NO. 1 OG NH, 2 NO, 1 black NH and another OG NH on the way from the US.

Damn, why though? =p

 

[gikigill]

Damn, why though? =p

The current crop of headphones such as the Focals, Sony and others have just been disappointing.

Just not worth it except the iSine 20 and the Nighthawk/Nightowl.

The tonality is just not up to scratch and the price tags not justifiable considering the sound quality. A Utopia is barely worth $1500 IMO considering it hits diminishing returns very quickly. Tried the Z1R out of valve and Solid State and lord almighty is it a mess. Mind you, I have been a Sony fan since I was a kid and have more Hi-MD/minidisc players/recorders then I have teeth,fingers,toes and limbs combined.

Sticking with the good old HD800 (bought another one new in box), HE-6 and a few old timers for the time being so just spent my play money on all the AQ headphones I could. Robert Pirsig would approve.

 

[MidSmoothness]

The current crop of headphones such as the Focals, Sony and others have just been disappointing.

Just not worth it except the iSine 20 and the Nighthawk/Nightowl.

The tonality is just not up to scratch and the price tags not justifiable considering the sound quality. A Utopia is barely worth $1500 IMO considering it hits diminishing returns very quickly. Tried the Z1R out of valve and Solid State and lord almighty is it a mess. Mind you, I have been a Sony fan since I was a kid and have more Hi-MD/minidisc players/recorders then I have teeth,fingers,toes and limbs combined.

Sticking with the good old HD800 (bought another one new in box), HE-6 and a few old timers for the time being so just spent my play money on all the AQ headphones I could. Robert Pirsig would approve.

I definitely agree that the owl and hawk are great headphones. I own both, but not multiple, why owning multiple was more my question

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

Seems a bit much but maybe he’s outfitting his nearest family with high quality easy-to-drive headphones?

Coming from a week’s worth of Sundara and he500 the Nighthawk seemed awfully dark and musky upon my initial return to it. Still looked beautiful and I still had an urge to lick the cups...
Fast forward through some bewildering listens and I arrive at Ennio Morricone’s I Cannibali and it’s as if everything fell into place. Yes the word natural once again perfectly describes the experience, because the ‘distant’ sensation from before now somehow is absorbed by my brain and now appears more like a giant room of sound hence the speaker effect I was on about earlier.
I bet there are a lot of Nighthawks out there sold off because the owner came back to it after a long affair with a T1. ‘What is this madness?!?!?!?!’
Give your upstairs compartment time to readjust to the warmth of the bird though. Once it does you’ll be doing flipflops and sly salsamoves of joy.

 

[gikigill]

I definitely agree that the owl and hawk are great headphones. I own both, but not multiple, why owning multiple was more my question

I bought multiple so I can have backups and use the closed ones on the train and the open ones at home. Also travel a bit so the closed ones are pretty handy with my ifi Micro Black Label.

 

[Joong]

Hoarding up the NH and NO. 1 OG NH, 2 NO, 1 black NH and another OG NH on the way from the US.

They will be classic...maybe already

 

[nicholars]

Do these have problems with reliability then?

 

[nicholars]

Also ignoring things like closed back being more practical etc. Which is the best sounding out of the owl and the hawk?

 

[gikigill]

Do these have problems with reliability then?

They seem well built and I expect them to last.

I'm just a little bit paranoid and any headphone that's a personal favourite, I tend to have multiple copies. Got 2 HD800, 2 MDR-F1, 2 of the Fostex TH600 among others.

 

[atomd]

Also ignoring things like closed back being more practical etc. Which is the best sounding out of the owl and the hawk?

I have both here and I have spent some time switching back and forth with them. I have not owned either for long. I have been reluctant to really post much about sound because I am having an issue with my left ear right now which is making me describe things more by memory. What I will say though is that I disagree with the people that say they sound extremely similar. They have some things in common for sure but they have big differences too. It's hard to say which is "better". To me, the NO is like the more polite older brother of the two. I think that if you were going for points on paper the NO might do a bit better but that doesn't mean someone is definitely going to like them more. The NH is almost in it's own category though because it's just so much different than anything I can think of. The sound isn't quite out there with the NO like the NH is. By "out there" I am trying to describe this sound that I can't really put my finger on. People say things like veiled, muddy, muffled...but that is not at all how I would describe them. There is some of this going on with the NO too for sure but not as much as with the NH.

This might only make sense to me and no one else but here is how I will try to describe it. I'm not big into audiophile terminology but I don't really think there's a word that quite fits what I'm looking to describe anyways. It's almost like the sound is coming from within a smooth ball of glass or gelatin or something....and when you first listen you don't know what the heck is going on. It would be easy to stop there and wonder what in the world were they thinking when they made these. But then you put your head inside that glass ball and you hear all the detail and the things you thought might have been missing. It's very strange. When I say ball I don't mean that the music sounds like it is coming from within a sphere somewhere or something....I mean it's all in your head. That might sound odd but that's the best way I can think to put it. They are both very pleasant headphones to listen to and I like them both quite a bit for different reasons. I would listen to both if you can before buying....or buy both and keep the one you like more.

 

[mbwilson111]

I would listen to both if you can before buying....or buy both and keep the one you like more.

Or buy both and keep both.

 

[nicholars]

So the nightowl is out there and like you are in a gelatin sphere, the nighthawk is more polite.

 

[volly]

I have both here and I have spent some time switching back and forth with them. I have not owned either for long. I have been reluctant to really post much about sound because I am having an issue with my left ear right now which is making me describe things more by memory. What I will say though is that I disagree with the people that say they sound extremely similar. They have some things in common for sure but they have big differences too. It's hard to say which is "better". To me, the NO is like the more polite older brother of the two. I think that if you were going for points on paper the NO might do a bit better but that doesn't mean someone is definitely going to like them more. The NH is almost in it's own category though because it's just so much different than anything I can think of. The sound isn't quite out there with the NO like the NH is. By "out there" I am trying to describe this sound that I can't really put my finger on. People say things like veiled, muddy, muffled...but that is not at all how I would describe them. There is some of this going on with the NO too for sure but not as much as with the NH.

This might only make sense to me and no one else but here is how I will try to describe it. I'm not big into audiophile terminology but I don't really think there's a word that quite fits what I'm looking to describe anyways. It's almost like the sound is coming from within a smooth ball of glass or gelatin or something....and when you first listen you don't know what the heck is going on. It would be easy to stop there and wonder what in the world were they thinking when they made these. But then you put your head inside that glass ball and you hear all the detail and the things you thought might have been missing. It's very strange. When I say ball I don't mean that the music sounds like it is coming from within a sphere somewhere or something....I mean it's all in your head. That might sound odd but that's the best way I can think to put it. They are both very pleasant headphones to listen to and I like them both quite a bit for different reasons. I would listen to both if you can before buying....or buy both and keep the one you like more.

I personally love hearing others give their opinions on what the Nighthawks are doing, it goes to show that we all hear differently. For me, I find the Nighthawks immediately remind me of a well treated room with two floor standing speakers toed-in and I'm sitting directly in the sweet-spot!

 

[Kammerat Rebekka]

So a friend of mine fell head over heels for my bird and decided he needed one for himself. He decided inside 10 minutes or so..surprisingly so seeing as he absolutely hated it the first 8 of the duration. Hah!
His face suddenly looked like it harnessed a couple of tiny explosions underneath the skin and the expression was that of a man who’d just discovered fire, a true heureka moment if I’ve ever witnessed one.

Anyway he brought it along this morning after having “broken it in” for about an hour or so last night. He thought it’d be fun to see if we could hear any differences between a brand new headphone vs one that’s had 300+ hours on it.
Spoiler: They.sound.exactly.the.same.

Funny how it always seems to be cans with either extreme sound signatures (K701, Nighthawk, etc) or extreme presentations (Ultrasone ie decentralised drivers) that need the most burn in
Could it just be that it takes a wee bit longer to grow accustomed to new and rather strange sound purveyors?