[oghoter]

Thanks KaiFi and Kennyb123!

The headband on my owl is still fine, but the one on the hawk is worn and slowly saying farewell I suppose. It seems to be poor construction, not due to sweat etc, not sure.
If the hawk headband disintegrates, I hope I find a way to replace it. My first thought is just to tape the whole thing. Or make a silk cover for it.

I have not tested much, but my experience is that the owls dont leak so much sound. So the basic problem on flights may be noise, sound leaking the other way. But this can be correlated. If I sit on a plane with much background noise, I will turn up the volume, and the passenger next to me may be bothered. Since, at this larger volume, even the closed-back owl does send out sound to the environment. Sounds familiar! I generally don't bring high class listening devices into low class - much noise - listening situations.

 

[oghoter]

Dark sounding Nightowls?

I have a question for you.

There are many descriptions of the Nightowl (and Nighthawk) as relatively 'dark' sounding headphones. It is not quite clear what this consists of, but it seems to involve a polite treble and a forgiving and 'comfortable' sound.

Is it correct that it is mainly the Nigthowl that is heard as 'dark'? Not so much, the Nighthawk?

I am asking due to listener experience with the Nighthawks, this summer. I wonder if the open ear construction helps the sound. Closed meant darker sound. I have not A - B tested, however.

 

[oghoter]

When I run the Nighthawk or Nightowl from my best amp (Jade OTL tube headphone amp) they don't sound so 'dark', but more, full scale - they rise to the occation.

 

[HipHopScribe]

Dark sounding Nightowls?

I have a question for you.

There are many descriptions of the Nightowl (and Nighthawk) as relatively 'dark' sounding headphones. It is not quite clear what this consists of, but it seems to involve a polite treble and a forgiving and 'comfortable' sound.

Is it correct that it is mainly the Nigthowl that is heard as 'dark'? Not so much, the Nighthawk?

I am asking due to listener experience with the Nighthawks, this summer. I wonder if the open ear construction helps the sound. Closed meant darker sound. I have not A - B tested, however.

They're both dark headphones by most standards. In graphs you can usually see that headphones described as dark will have an elevated lower midrange combined with a dip in the upper midrange (2-4kHz) usually extending into lower treble aka the 'presence' region (4-6kHz). Both the Nighthawk and Nightowl fall along those lines, though they are tuned slightly differently. The comparison here also depends somewhat on which earpads you're running. The OG Nighthawk shipped with different earpads than the Nighthawk Carbon and Nightowl. Which ones you're running will have an effect on how "dark" they sound, though all options are dark sounding compared to the tuning of many audiophile headphones.

 

[KaiFi]

Dark sounding Nightowls?

I have a question for you.

There are many descriptions of the Nightowl (and Nighthawk) as relatively 'dark' sounding headphones. It is not quite clear what this consists of, but it seems to involve a polite treble and a forgiving and 'comfortable' sound.

Is it correct that it is mainly the Nigthowl that is heard as 'dark'? Not so much, the Nighthawk?

I am asking due to listener experience with the Nighthawks, this summer. I wonder if the open ear construction helps the sound. Closed meant darker sound. I have not A - B tested, however.

"Dark" just means "less high-end" (as opposed to "warm", which means "more low-end"). In the simplest possible terms. The NightOwl is dark in that the upper mids and treble are quite smooth and rolled off. That doesn't mean that they're not there. In the hi-fi world, most people seem to regard "dark" as being a bad thing because it limits perception of detail. But we all hear things differently and to me the NightOwl is just right in terms of high-end level, but I am generally treble-sensitive, so a lot of what people hear as "detailed" or "sparkling", I hear as "bright" or "piercing". From what I know, both headphones are dark, though having not heard the Nighthawk, I can't compare them directly. A lot of closed-back headphones can be quite bright, so the NightOwl is in many ways an exception.

 

[oghoter]

Thank you, HipHopScribe and KaiFi.
When I get the time, I will test the owl and hawk some more, since I have both at home now. Including different earpads. What I know, is that I enjoyed the hawk this summer, thinking that maybe the open construction makes it "not so dark after all" (to my ears). But maybe this is quite irrelevant, and yes, I have experienced quite bright closed headphones too. Is there a link between how dark it sounds, and the quality of the amp and music input? I think so. The better the quality the less I worry about darkness or missing treble. But I will check it. It may take some weeks, since I am away.

 

[yrstruly]

Thank you, HipHopScribe and KaiFi.
When I get the time, I will test the owl and hawk some more, since I have both at home now. Including different earpads. What I know, is that I enjoyed the hawk this summer, thinking that maybe the open construction makes it "not so dark after all" (to my ears). But maybe this is quite irrelevant, and yes, I have experienced quite bright closed headphones too. Is there a link between how dark it sounds, and the quality of the amp and music input? I think so. The better the quality the less I worry about darkness or missing treble. But I will check it. It may take some weeks, since I am away.

Owl > Hawk sonically for me. There’s a bit of spice in the Hawk’s treble which can come off a bit grainy to me at times, whereas the Owl is completely grain free and sounds more refined imo.

 

[oghoter]

yrstruly - I understand what you mean. Until recently I ranked the Nightowl as, all in all, better than the Nighthawk. And maybe I still do, although I was positively surprised by the Nighthawk this summer. Is the Nighthawk grainy, if it has good amplification and music material? Not so sure about that.

 

[oghoter]

I have time now for a little testing when at home before I leave. I select Steven Wilson, from his new album, Impossible tightrope, which should give these phones a fair chance to show their worth.
Test setup - ethernet cable to thinkpad pc, usb to Topping e30ii DAC, to Audiotailor Jade OTL tube amp, to headphones connected single ended to the Jade. The Nighthawk is a bit handicapped by a longer and thinner cable (the shorter and thicker owl cable sounds a slightly more forceful).
Result: surprising.
Maybe I actually like the sonic picture from the hawks better than the owls. Even if the owls sound more 'correct' and maybe measure more flat. I think this has to do with the larger space and ambience produced by the hawks. Maybe due to their open construction? The owls sound harder on my ears. More "there". Like more in my face speakers. The hawks seem softer, with more spatial perspective. Maybe I like them better.
One more test, now; Jeff Beck: Behind the veil, from his live Performing this week... album.
It sounds surprisingly much better from the Nighthawks than the Nightowls. To my ears. Even if the owls are better in some respects, the open hawk construction - or whatever it is - makes them sound less closed in. There is more of a feeling of being there, at the concert.
Just my preliminary impressions. Both are very good and resemble each other in many ways.

 

[yrstruly]

Which pads you using on the Owls? Would recommend giving the Hybrid pads (the ones the Hawk come with) a go on the Owls.

 

[BrokeAudiophileMan]

I am very late to this thread but what ever happened to Audioquest headphones? Did they totally leave the market? I listened to Night Owls once at a hifi shop running off a very expensive amp. I was impressed. Couldn't afford them at the time because I was in my 20's and broke(er). But they were decent.

 

[oghoter]

I have three sets of pads. Not quite sure what they are called, or which pads came with which phone.
1 - shiny leather-like inside, front (towards the head) and outside. I don't use it much, I like the others better.
2 - suede leather like inside, front, and outside. Sits on my Nightowl now (and for the testing yesterday).
3 - suede? cloth-like? inside, shiny leather on front and outside. Sits on my Nighthawks now, and for the testing.

 

[HipHopScribe]

I have three sets of pads. Not quite sure what they are called, or which pads came with which phone.
1 - shiny leather-like inside, front (towards the head) and outside. I don't use it much, I like the others better.
2 - suede leather like inside, front, and outside. Sits on my Nightowl now (and for the testing yesterday).
3 - suede? cloth-like? inside, shiny leather on front and outside. Sits on my Nighthawks now, and for the testing.

1. Protein leather aka "boost" pads, came with the NightHawk Carbon and NightOwl
https://web.archive.org/web/2017080...arspeaker_accessories/protein-leather-earpads

2. Microsuede, came with the NightHawk Carbon and NightOwl
https://web.archive.org/web/2017080...com/earspeaker_accessories/microsuede-earpads

3. Hybrid, came on the original NightHawk
https://web.archive.org/web/2018021...est.com/earspeaker_accessories/hybrid-earpads

 

[oghoter]

Thanks! So my testing yesterday was the original NightHawk with hybrid pads, versus NightOwl with microsuede pads. Maybe I get time for some more testing before I leave.

BrokeAudiophileMan - you can sometimes find them second hand. That is how I got them. Like you I first heard them in a shop, but didn't have the money there and then. I could not forget them, and was lucky to find them used, some years later. Absolutely zero regrets!

 

[oghoter]

While we are at it: is it a point to run the owl / hawk with a balanced cable, from an amp that supports balanced output? Is this a big sonic benefit or is it more marginal?

My Audiotaylor Jade OTL amp has a kind of balanced output (needs 2 x big jack plugs) although it may require some tweaking / soldering to get the cable right. I made balanced cables for my former headphones, Sennheiser 600 and Akg701, and in both cases it was a plus, yet not enough to make me love them.