An Audio engineer has found the Audioquest Nighthawk to be neutral

Use the term neutral-ish...

Neutral this, neutral that and you might become Switzerland. That does not sound fun or interesting.

 

For sound, I read "neutral" as transparent, ie, true to the recording, or high fidelity as it was originally understood. This, I don't associate it with lack of fun/interest. However, I also support the right of the listener to buy audio in the flavour that they want.

 

The Nighthawk has some very nice design touches,ideas and sound qualities , but neutrality is not one of them - freq response wise anyway. Skylar used to work for Westone and seems their IEM's have a very similar sound tuning to the Nighthawks.

 

They are neutral only in the raw uncompensated measurements, i had them and for me they have too much upper bass and somewhat drown upper mids, if you use velour ear pads with them they are a lot closer to neutral sound.
I remember the imaging was great, very dark background and precise placement of the instruments.
Overall great headphones but only with velour pads.

 

HD600 or HD650, both are good