I thought I’d start the thread for another legendary headphone. This is one that is near and dear to my heart. @M0N pointed me toward these a little over a year ago. I was lucky enough to be one of the last people to be able to buy these new before they sold out everywhere. Looking back I would say these were my first step into quality audio. They are not for everybody but they are definitely for me.
They have what I consider a fun, very relaxed tuning. They have good bass with lots of impact and slam. It’s elevated and not the tightest and most controlled but it’s fun. The treble is present but subdued which makes these an extremely fun headphone that will not punish you with treble when you want crank them up and hear the bass slam on electronic and rock tracks.
But they do more than bump, they also have a nice natural sound and an interesting stage that is not extremely wide but it’s natural feeling and immersive. More like a small room.
They are also one of my favorite headphones I have owned in terms of build. They are quite unique and the craftsmanship beats a lot of the higher end headphones I’ve seen. They are also probably the most comfortable headphones I’ve ever used. I can easily wear these hours at a time with no discomfort.
These are another must try headphone in my opinion, especially if you want to try something a little different. They are my go-to chill headphone and I think they will always hold a place in my collection for that reason.
Sure, but tbh it’s been a looong time since I’ve sat down and actually listened to them so I’m not confident in my memory and I might not have fed it quality sources at the time.
I would do it now but the right side blew up when I was playing around with opamps, though I did nothing wrong oddly enough.
Anyway, bass was fairly muddy and oftentimes bled into the midrange. Midrange was sucked out, stuffy, and lacked body. Treble was okay though sibilant at times. Oddly enough, I liked it more with the leather pads even though the suede made it sound more “normal.” I was able to get a decent sound out of them while I was testing certain opamps. But I didn’t spend a lot of time with them. I will say they sounded fun with movies; everything was very exaggerated.
I wonder if anybody else heard em and has the same impressions I have. I know @Veritas said he had both. Care to chime in?
been a night hawk user for a while now . was not initially impressed by them then these sat on my desk for months before I had the time and chance to give them another effort of trying and finding what they are good at. After a while I started to really enjoy their sound signature and crept to being my daily driver. the combination of the overall comfort. good imaging and comfortable sound has really made them great daily drivers. the dark bassy sound is great and forgiving for the most part for a lot of the badly produced music I listen to and the warm low end does a lot to cater to my music tastes. To me if I were to Z ify my methaphors to describe these are like that one couch in front of the basement TV in a cold room the cushions you while wrapped up in a warm blanket. sure the couch may not be perfect but fuck is it comfy.
If some of you know me well enough, you know that I have ditched my headphone setup long ago when I consolidated and focused into 2ch more.
The one headphone that I sold and regretted was the Nighthawks. Comfy af and fun headphone. In fact, aside from KSC75, my only other headphone that I own was an attempt to chase the hawk again, is the Nightowl. The owl is more of a disappointment, but at least close. I’d absolutely repurchase a hawk in the future.
Kind of awkward having matching tattoos when I don’t own my hawk anymore
Pulled these out for the first time in quite a while today after mostly listening to the LCD-24 for the last several days. It took me a bit to acclimate, but what I still notice is that it seems almost like something is muted with these by comparison. Maybe the way the upper mids/lower treble are presented, but it’s like I can hear placement of vocalists and instruments, but it’s otherwise dead space like there’s nothing behind or around them…maybe almost like wearing noise cancelling headphones where only certain sounds come through as they normally would. Not sure if that makes sense.
Don’t get me wrong…still really enjoying them, getting a bit nostalgic with a 90’s rock playlist, which I think suits them well. I’ve still had several ‘oh, that was nice’ moments.
classic rock , badly produced hip hop and indie rock / alternative rock I findto be most fitting genres. there something about the forigiving nature but yet still detailed sound to them thats really enjoyable with those tracks I find
Yeah you should definitely give that a shot. I need to do the opposite actually. It’s been a long time since I listened to the pleather. I’ve been running the suedes.
It’s been some time since I put on the the nighthawks, but suede all the way. From what I recall, I disliked the treble peakiness of the leather pads and thought they just sounded really ‘off’. The suede had neither issue and were definitely a more balanced pleasing sound for me. Definitely a steal when they were going for $200. It’d be nice if audio quest was still in the headphone game since they made such an interesting product.
FUCKING NIGHTHAWK GANG DUDES. I fucking wish they brought these back into production, honestly as long as it were to be anywhere from 350 price range like sundaras or 420 price even max like the Hemps I think these dudes would still have a spot in the market. Currently listening to them on the RS6 and these things really scale up, they sounded great on most things and even when using them with the Bifrost + Liquid Plat they were pretty frickin dope but now with a better dac, who would have guessed it, IT GETS BETTER. Love the presentation, love the bass, love the SOUL, and love everything about it tbh. Forgot how wide the sound stage is btw, didn’t realize how big the sound stage was in width and heck even depth really improves with better source gear a fair bit.
Eyyy, even if you guys sold em we all have hawk membership for life. But yeah, I getcha guys I had sold mine a few times too and regretted it each time. Thankfully (eventually) I learned from my mistakes and bought them and never sold them again lol. FOR GOOD.
word dude, such an awesome massive presentation. Really does sound like some nearfield speakers or something. So much reverb type of sound too.
OGs pretty worth, Carbon good too in fact Carbon are my only working pair as my OG died (due to some things…) but OG is my preferrence. Feels more warm as opposed to leaning very slightly dark as the Carbons do imo.
You can check out any time you like, but you can never leave. 
It’s one of those headphones that I regret getting rid of, I really want to get one again and also try out the OG & Owls