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I got the Nighthawk yesterday and tried it out, and wanted to post a couple of things while it burns-in (recommended 200 hours). I thought this would be a good place to post impressions, rather than in a paid MOT thread. Feel free to post positives and negatives here. I hooked it up to my NAD C555 Rega P2 clone, with Ortofon Blue M2 cartridge, feeding it into my EC ZDT amp and listening to HD800 for a couple of hours last night.
First off, I noticed right away an improvement in the mids over my current GEMsound PL-USB phono preamp. The mids are richer and more tangible or present, and I feel like there's more substance to them. Female vocals sound more organic now. The bass was also stronger, and more tactile which benefitted the HD800 nicely. Detail was also a little better, and the air and ambience were also a little better, although the soundstage was a little more forward and intimate, and this was with just 1-2 hours on the nighthawk!
I also compared the same Nancy Bryan "Neon Angel" 180g LP with the 24/96 download, albeit via Airport Express optical which should be down-sampling the hi-res music to 16/48 before feeding that into my PS Audio Perfectwave DAC. The vinyl rig has a little better bass presence with fuller, richer and more engaging mids now; but it also has more disc noise and a little less air, ambience and soundstage depth than the AE > PWD. The differences are not huge, but they are there. What I thought about the most last night was the AE > PWD sounded closer to a very good recording and the Nighthawk rig sounded more like a real person singing, with the vibrations of the vocal cords happening right there.
The PWD is fully burned in and the Nighthawk is fresh out of the box. I wont say the F-117 is better due to the more organic vocals and stronger bass with HD800, because I really need to connect my Macbook directly to the PWD via USB and Optical, and not use the Airport Express which is supposed to have a lot of jitter as a transport. I feel the AE is questionable because the PWD with a CD via coax input clearly beats the same ripped CD via Airport Express optical. I just don't have Nancy Bryan on a CD to compare coax input of the DAC to the Nighthawk yet. What surprises me is that I'll have half as much money invested in the vinyl rig than just the PWD, and before burn-in it already competes will with a high end DAC, albeit using a questionable transport. The issue is that I must use my best digital transport in future comparisons, and I'll need more vinyl that matches what CDs and hi-res downloads that I have.
The Nighthawk vinyl rig is also a good bit louder than the PWD even when the PWD is set to 100% volume, and the phono preamp gain seems to be almost bordering on too much when on the lowest setting. With peaks and transients it keeps making me want to clean my cartridge needle that shouldn't be dirty. Sherwood tells me that a very capable person set up the cartridge, but I'll need to have the VTA checked again, along with alignment. I'll also need to invest in better LP cleaning accessories than my carbon fiber brush and needle brush.
This phono preamp is supposed to need 200 hours of burn-in, which could take me months if I listen to 2 albums a day, and I don't have that many! In the meantime, I'm not sure I'm cut out for vinyl anymore, as my last vinyl rig in 1991 was fully automatic and would start and stop on command. I'm getting too lazy in my old age, and I don't enjoy the ritual of washing discs and cuing up the first track, or flipping discs as much as I did years ago. These days I like the black background of digital, and I like how well 24/96 music replicates analog for me. But if I am going to continue to dabble in analog audio even though I am focusing more on my digital rig, the Nighthawk is the most I would spend on a phono preamp because it does the job so well that it doesn't seem like I will need anything better any time soon.
First off, I noticed right away an improvement in the mids over my current GEMsound PL-USB phono preamp. The mids are richer and more tangible or present, and I feel like there's more substance to them. Female vocals sound more organic now. The bass was also stronger, and more tactile which benefitted the HD800 nicely. Detail was also a little better, and the air and ambience were also a little better, although the soundstage was a little more forward and intimate, and this was with just 1-2 hours on the nighthawk!
I also compared the same Nancy Bryan "Neon Angel" 180g LP with the 24/96 download, albeit via Airport Express optical which should be down-sampling the hi-res music to 16/48 before feeding that into my PS Audio Perfectwave DAC. The vinyl rig has a little better bass presence with fuller, richer and more engaging mids now; but it also has more disc noise and a little less air, ambience and soundstage depth than the AE > PWD. The differences are not huge, but they are there. What I thought about the most last night was the AE > PWD sounded closer to a very good recording and the Nighthawk rig sounded more like a real person singing, with the vibrations of the vocal cords happening right there.
The PWD is fully burned in and the Nighthawk is fresh out of the box. I wont say the F-117 is better due to the more organic vocals and stronger bass with HD800, because I really need to connect my Macbook directly to the PWD via USB and Optical, and not use the Airport Express which is supposed to have a lot of jitter as a transport. I feel the AE is questionable because the PWD with a CD via coax input clearly beats the same ripped CD via Airport Express optical. I just don't have Nancy Bryan on a CD to compare coax input of the DAC to the Nighthawk yet. What surprises me is that I'll have half as much money invested in the vinyl rig than just the PWD, and before burn-in it already competes will with a high end DAC, albeit using a questionable transport. The issue is that I must use my best digital transport in future comparisons, and I'll need more vinyl that matches what CDs and hi-res downloads that I have.
The Nighthawk vinyl rig is also a good bit louder than the PWD even when the PWD is set to 100% volume, and the phono preamp gain seems to be almost bordering on too much when on the lowest setting. With peaks and transients it keeps making me want to clean my cartridge needle that shouldn't be dirty. Sherwood tells me that a very capable person set up the cartridge, but I'll need to have the VTA checked again, along with alignment. I'll also need to invest in better LP cleaning accessories than my carbon fiber brush and needle brush.
This phono preamp is supposed to need 200 hours of burn-in, which could take me months if I listen to 2 albums a day, and I don't have that many! In the meantime, I'm not sure I'm cut out for vinyl anymore, as my last vinyl rig in 1991 was fully automatic and would start and stop on command. I'm getting too lazy in my old age, and I don't enjoy the ritual of washing discs and cuing up the first track, or flipping discs as much as I did years ago. These days I like the black background of digital, and I like how well 24/96 music replicates analog for me. But if I am going to continue to dabble in analog audio even though I am focusing more on my digital rig, the Nighthawk is the most I would spend on a phono preamp because it does the job so well that it doesn't seem like I will need anything better any time soon.
