Nighthawk I Did It Again God Dammit
Get 'em while you can. AudioQuest recently announced they're getting out of the headphones game, which is a real shame. For our money, they produced several of the coolest headphones ever made, including the subject of this review: the NightHawk Carbons. These cans are however very much available, and we call back it's worth going into why they're so damn practiced. In this review, we break downwards the sound, design, condolement and fit, packaging and accessories, and specs of the NightHawk Carbon. To see how information technology stacks up, see our list of the best high-finish headphones.
Sound:
Depression-End (Bass)
AudioQuest, unsurprisingly, know their sound. For a pair of headphones that costs around $700, the NightHawk Carbons are very good indeed. Y'all can hear this particularly in the depression-stop. The bass of the Carbons is their real draw - while they're definitely an acquired gustation, they do accept plenty to offering. Bass notes and kick drums are huge and powerful, even overbearing at times, but we establish that the sound signature was i we mostly enjoyed. It definitely suits genres like hip-hop and dubstep more than information technology does, say, classical. If you don't enjoy dark, bassy headphones, then you may desire to steer clear of these.
High-End (Treble)
If there'south one area the headphones really endure in, it's hither. Not to the extent of being a poor production - they are anything just. And the macerated loftier-end definitely feels like a deliberate choice, more than than an oversight. It's not that it lacks detail: information technology's but nowhere about equally forwards as the bass, meaning that it can often be a piffling catchy to discern the upper ranges of any particular rails. If you were to lucifer this up with, for case, a pair of Grado SR325es (full review here), you would take a vastly different experience.
However, like the Grados, there were a couple of issues with bleed, the sound leaking out of the grille while we were listening to music, but it was a small-scale problem – something you have to exist in relatively close proximity to the headphones to notice. In the instruction leaflet, AudioQuest advise a burn-in time of 150 hours for the headphones to attain their full potential. We listened to them for around this length of time, and didn't discover a huge change in sound quality, but information technology's non equally if listening to them was a hardship, and it'south not as if the audio wasn't spectacular to begin with. It had near zero baloney from the offset.
Using The Headphones With An Amp
The Carbons are surprisingly easy to drive. With an impedance of 25 ohms and a sensitivity of 99dB, these can quite comfortably be driven by a smartphone. We spent quite a bit of fourth dimension listening to them on our smartphone, and the sound was…good. Even great, at times. Information technology felt clear, dynamic and natural, with a good range of expression. And then again, these aren't exactly portable headphones – not unless you lot relish Uber drivers asking you what on earth you're wearing on your head – and that's hardly the point anyway. Plug these into a decent amplifier, and they absolutely sing. For whatsoever reason, the NightHawk Carbons respond particularly well to amplification, more than and so than other headphones. On neutral-sounding amps, the NightHawk Carbons have a clear, sharp, detailed quality to them – hardly surprising, given their open-back design, merely it's got a quality to information technology that we institute completely addictive. Even at low levels, we were able to hear every single detail on a track, and the soundstage took our breath away. Part of this, we think, is downward to the butterfly-mimicking grille (more about that in a minute), which AudioQuest merits really diffuses sound, stopping information technology existence reflected back into the ear. Information technology works brilliantly, and it was a real joy to effort out different genres and artists with these cans, seeing how they responded.
When we added some tube goodness to the mix, we got the best of both worlds: the warm, gooey quality of the tubes, with that outstanding clarity and crispness. There is a truly staggering level of science and thought that has gone into the headphones' 50mm driver units, and it shows: we never lacked for bass, or tight dynamics. It helps that you lot can switch out the earpads to customise the sound; the poly peptide leather pads gave us better isolation and slightly more item in the highs, while the suede pads sacrificed the former to add together in a better bass response.
Design:
Technology
3D press. Biomimicry. Liquid wood. Biocellulose. We don't want to spend too much time talking near the wealth of technologies that AudioQuest used to create these headphones. Let's simply say that paging through the glossy brochure that comes with them is countenance-raising, to say the to the lowest degree. Rarely has an audio manufacturer shown this much dedication to pushing the boundaries of what you lot can exercise with a pair of headphones, and although we didn't rip them open up to check if the grille really is inspired by the structure of butterfly wings, we tin certainly say that the blueprint is unlike anything we've seen before (unless you're counting the manufacturer's previous models like the open up-back NightHawk, which is a directly predecessor of this ane, and at that place's too a closed-dorsum NightOwl Carbon model). Even the damn name makes a statement. It sounds like a car you'd unlock in Forza Horizons on XBox. Or an optional boss battle in Titanfall 2. One that flies and shoots lasers and has a rocket attack that takes out half your wellness bar.
Features and Headband
These are, essentially, semi-open-dorsum headphones: the unique grille diffuses the sound coming from the drivers, and information technology results in an eye-communicable exterior design. The grille on each cup is suspended in a semicircular chunk of plastic, and the entire cup is made of the aforementioned liquid wood, which feels smoothen and robust. These are not headphones you wear without your friends, colleagues or spouse doing a double take - although in that location are enough of other headphones that you could say the same thing about.
Each ear cup is conspicuously marked with left and right indicators, and you can bandy out the pads for different material, which nosotros'll breakdown in a little more item below. The pads pop correct off with a house snap, and swapping them out is simplicity itself. They also aren't completely symmetrical, moulded to fit the shape of the ear. Each cup housing also has its own headphone connector. The headband is interesting, also. Instead of relying on transmission adjustment, the leather and textile headband is elasticised, adjusting to the shape of your head. It'southward an approach that nosotros've seen on several other headphone models, similar the MEZE 99 Classics (total review here), and it's one we actually like. Above the headband is a length of rigid wire, designed to concord everything together.
Build Quality
You lot could fence that these headphones lose a little scrap of the loftier-cease lustre, equally several parts of them are plastic or simple fabric. And to exist sure, they don't adhere to the all-metal, all-leather artful of something like the Bowers & Wilkins P7 Wireless (full review). To which our response is: then what? When there'due south so much innovative pattern going on behind the scenes, information technology seems churlish to need sure materials announced simply because they have a loftier-end reputation and expect. If this really was the case, then every pair of Stax electrostatic headphones would need to be upholstered in marble to get a look-in – and these are headphones that are revered by audiophiles while looking like something an alien would use to turn man brains to mush. No, the blueprint of the NightHawk Carbons is superb: bold, heart-catching, innovative, and more importantly, fun. They are a joy to look at.
One matter – and this is a genuine downside. While these headphones work perfectly well off a mobile device, they are absolutely not portable. For one thing, they are huge, and for another, we're not sure that we'd desire to risk these in the chaos of a backpack, whether they're in a carry case or not. AudioQuest practise offer a full year'due south warranty, but you might desire to leave these headphones at home. Preferably close to your leather burrow. And collection of fine single malts. If you'd like a pair of over-ear headphones that are a petty more portable, try the Sennheiser HD600.
Condolement & Fit:
Ear Pads
It's all about the pads. Yous get two pairs of them: one made of protein leather, the other made of suede. They both touch on the sound differently. What's of import is that they feel superb: both of them, and although we preferred the suede pads for reasons of audio quality besides as comfort, both kinds were an accented joy to use. It helps that they aren't symmetrical, every bit we mentioned earlier, meaning they fit snugly around the ear. Even when wearing glasses, information technology didn't experience similar the headphones were existence pushed away from the head. Other headphones, like the Advanced Sound Blastoff, come with boosted pads, but very rarely does information technology make a difference like it does here.
Weight and Comfort
Although the NightHawk Carbons aren't especially calorie-free (12.2oz), they are immensely comfortable to wear for long periods. It'south not just that the stretchy headband is perfectly all-around to any size and shape of skull. Information technology'southward that the clamping pressure from the cans feels natural, neither too loose nor too tight, clasping the head without crushing it. The blueprint qualities of these cans would hateful nothing if they felt uncomfortable - and when we first saw the design, nosotros were a little worried. Cool it might be, but so is a Lamborghini Gallardo, and that has seats that more than or less declare war on your ass cheeks. Not a problem here. The comfort level of the Carbons is superb.
Accessories & Packaging:
Packaging
Fifty-fifty unzipping the case is an absolutely joyous feel. Forget the semirigid zippered pocketbook; the cloth carry case; the commonsensical metallic flying box. No, these bastards did something different. Their instance for the Nighthawk Carbon is a full-size leather storage container, with the headphones and accessories nestled inside a foam pouch. Only look at the matter. Wait. At. Information technology.
That's the box it ships in. There's a protective cardboard slipcover, simply that'due south all. This is the packaging. It's impossible not to open the case without a huge grin on your face. And we're non talking something you throw away, either. This is a case which you will be very happy to take take up space on your shelf, even if you lot hardly employ it (AudioQuest practise include a cloth behave case, as well). It'south not quite the most accessible case around - that would be the one that comes with the Nuraphones (full review here), which is just brilliant. But when a pair of headphones can make us smile before we've even pulled them out of the example, information technology's a very practiced sign.
Accessories
Possibly information technology'southward a good idea to begin with the cable. It's not similar other headphone cables. To start with, it's thick, with a chunkiness and solidity that nosotros really like. AudioQuest say this is to reduce 'microphonics' - those annoying rumbling bumps yous become when bear on a cable of lower manufacturing standards. Well, we bumped and knocked and touched and thump, and didn't hear a single microphonic. Task done. At 4'three" length, the cable in question is not that much shorter than other headphone cables, just information technology feels shorter, perhaps due to its tendency to curl in on itself a fiddling. And while the cablevision is tangle free, the smaller, thinner lines above the Y-bracket exercise tend to become a footling twisted, which can be a bit annoying. The connector is standard iii.5mm, and it comes with a 6.3mm adapter - and if you need additional cables, the company sells enough. It's literally their main product line.
There was, to our surprise, an in-line command unit of measurement on the subclass. This didn't work with our Android smartphone, but it worked just fine on an iPhone, even if y'all have to exert quite a lot of force to push the button.The cable connections are actually quite interesting. They are made of Tellurium Copper, which AudioQuest say results in a smoother plug surface, and therefore, college audio quality.
Cable Connectors
It also, unfortunately, has an interesting side upshot: you need to make clean the conductors quite regularly, and this is probably a good time to talk about the other accessories that come with the headphones. Put simply, if we didn't clean the connectors once every few days with the specially-supplied argent cloth, we got slight interruptions in the bespeak. This wasn't a huge issue – cleaning the connectors didn't take much more a few seconds – just it was a surprise. First, we idea nosotros'd been shipped a lacking unit of measurement, but cleaning the connectors showed an immediate improvement in the quality and transmission (and yous can e'er buy a new 6.3mm adaptor - they're super inexpensive). The company cautions y'all non to apply the silverish cloth on the headphones themselves, supplying a basic blackness microfibre cloth for this purpose, which does a good chore of cleaning the liquid forest housing. In improver to that, you not only get a simple cloth carry instance for the headphones (to save yous having to hump around the wonderful but substantial leather box), but you likewise get an entirely dissever ane for the cablevision. That's a level of dedication to accessory goodness that we don't think we've seen before. There is and so much here – the four ear pads, the ii cloths, the multiple acquit bags – that nosotros nearly want a separate carrier to agree them all in. One that isn't made of leather and displayed proudly on our headphone shelf.
Stand
Along with the NightHawk Carbons, AudioQuest likewise shipped us a headphone stand, the Perch. We are never going to devote a total, iii-thousand review to a simple stand (because, come on). But there'due south no reason we shouldn't talk most it here, peculiarly since information technology's designed get-go and foremost equally a spot for you lot to hang your Carbons. You have to order it separately, and it costs around $80, but we think it's worth information technology. Firstly, there is zero assembly required: you lot take the stand out the box, and put your headphones on it. Secondly, it feels like it could kill somebody if you hit them hard enough with it, which is an important factor when y'all're groping effectually for a pair of headphones without necessarily looking to see that you aren't about to knock your stand off the shelf. What's interesting, however, is that the stand claims to solve a particular trouble with headphones. Namely: that if y'all hang them in ane spot for long enough, you run a risk deforming the headband, as all the weight is concentrated on one signal. The curved bracket at the top of the Perch evenly distributes this weight, and although we'd demand months and months of testing to know for sure, information technology seems far less likely to change the shape of the headband. If y'all care about your headphones, we advise picking upward a Perch as well.
What We Like:
- The NightHawk Carbons offer stunning design, amid some of the best we've seen, matched with groundbreaking scientific discipline.
- The sound quality is superb - definitely bass-heavy, but hugely exciting and dynamic.
- At 25 ohms, these are very easy to drive. Y'all can run them off a smartphone, for God'due south sake.
- Unbelievable range of accessories, and one of the best carry cases we've seen.
What We Don't:
- The NightHawk's cable connectors require cleaning - and the cablevision itself twists a little.
- If you're non a basshead, you're not going to relish these headphones very much.
- They may exist able to exist powered off a phone, but they are absolutely non portable - and require an amp to actually become the best out of.
Comparing Table:
| Headphones | Price | Weight | Driver | Impedance | Cable | Sensitivity |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| AudioQuest NightHawk Carbon | $699 | 12.2oz | 50mm | 25Ω | iv'3" | 99dB |
| AudioQuest NightOwl Carbon | $699 | 12.2oz | 50mm | 25Ω | 4'3" | 99dB |
| Sennheiser HD800 | $ane,090 | xi.7oz | 56mm | 300Ω | x' | 102dB |
| MEZE 99 Classics | $309 | 9.2oz | 40mm | 32Ω | Diverse | 103dB |
| AUDEZE LCD2C | $799 | i.1lbs | 106mm | 70Ω | 6'2" | 101dB |
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The Competition:
Let's get-go off with a real beast: the Sennheiser HD800. Commonly, Sennheiser are all near the whole user-feel-designed-by-robots thing. Their headphones sound wonderful, only male child, do they wait boring. The HD800 is one of the few models from this visitor that broke the mould at that place, and in doing so, it became a house favourite of just about every audio geek on globe. The open back design and unusual, heart-catching earcups brand it a serious looker, and the audio has actually and truly stood the examination of fourth dimension. For many, this is the become-to headphone for testing out new amps or DACs, and it isn't hard to see why. More expensive than the NightHawks, at $1090 (almost double the price) and nerdy rather than cool, simply well worth the money.
Looking for something cheaper? The MEZE 99 Classics don't offer quite the aforementioned level of sound quality as the NightHawks. And notwithstanding, in the months we've spent with them, nosotros can't assist simply find the sound addictive. They might not have the same clarity, but they take a richness and depth that makes them a serious alternative – and a cheaper one, at $309 to the NightHawks' $568. You sacrifice the groundbreaking commuter structure and pattern, and yous don't get the aforementioned airiness and clarity – these are closed-dorsum, dynamic driver cans, with all that implies. But they are absolutely gorgeous, supremely comfortable, and a pair of headphones that you just have to feel. If y'all don't accept the budget to stretch to a pair of NightHawk Carbons, give Romania's Greatest Consign a go.
A newer pair that we recently tested, and which compare well to the NightHawks, are the AUDEZE LCD2Cs. They are similarly dark and bassy, but with even higher-quality sound - not surprising, as they're a direct descendant of the original LCD-2s (yes, the hyphen is there deliberately). AudioQuest have them beaten, in terms of accessories, but they're even so excellent headphones.
And finally: the AudioQuest NightOwl Carbon Well, why not? After all, when you've got a pair of headphones this unique, the easiest comparison is a model that looks only like it, and that has the same devotion to groundbreaking scientific discipline. The NightOwl doesn't take the audio-diffusing grille (obviously), and it doesn't have the same open, airy quality to the audio, but it notwithstanding packs a huge corporeality of scientific innovation within information technology, and is withal an accented joy to apply. Yous'd go for this pair of headphones if you wanted the AudioQuest feel, simply needed to employ the headphones in an environment where sound bleed could exist a problem, such every bit an part. The differences between the two models are minimal, outside of the fact that the NightOwl is closed-back, and they cost roughly the same, and then making the selection is an like shooting fish in a barrel 1.
Here's the kicker - when it comes to AudioQuest anyway. There are plenty of companies that make loftier-end headphones. And there are enough of headphone models that are, considerately, meliorate than the NightHawk Carbons. But exercise you want to know the deviation between those models and these? Headphones from your big manufacturers – your Sonys, your Beyerdynamics, even your Audezes – often feel like they've been designed and packaged by robots. They do a phenomenal job, just they don't seem particularly concerned with how they make you experience. Whatever engineers labored over the audio signature in the lab, making it just right, the packaging and user feel was handled by Bob from management, who drives a 
Volvo and enjoys comparing snow blowers.
That's the difference with these headphones. They feel similar they were made past human beings: by people who care very deeply not merely about the sound going into your ears, but the entire feel, from the moment you open the packaging to when you lot hang the headphones back on the stand. They feel like they've been designed by people who enjoy what they practice, and who desire you to relish information technology, as well. They've been made with care, and pride, and devotion. How many headphones can you say that about? Up until recently, only companies like Grado actually nailed it. And their downwardly-home, folksy Brooklyn family business charm is groovy…just somehow, nosotros prefer these. And permit's be real: we didn't just spend damn-nearly 3000 words of orgasmic, overblown prose to give the NightHawk Carbons nothing more a perky thumbs-up. These get fireworks. These get the ticker tape parade. These get the goddamn primal to the city, and a blowjob in the dorsum of the limo.
See the NightHawk Carbon See the All-time High-End Headphones
Source: https://www.themasterswitch.com/review-audioquest-nighthawk-carbon
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