Audioquest Nighthawk Mods

3-4more db in the lower treble region, pretty nice! Would be nice if the 500-1khz range was boosted more.

 

Any chance I could fire you some money and get enough of each to try the mods?

 

I don't get it, whose graph is whose?

 

They're both purrin's. I aligned them on mine.

 

Ahh, noice.

 

Maybe the hm5 velour pads could work?

 

so does that mean your starting a loaner tour?

 

Cool mods. I've enjoyed the Nighthawk discussion around here. My first several impressions of the Nighthawk were extremely negative, but I took my personal rig into my local hi-fi store with me to see if I could get the cans to sound better by switching out tubes in my Aune T1. I eventually found a combination of tubes and gain settings which made the NIghthawk listenable, even very enjoyable with some songs. Can't help but feel like there is untapped potential with the Nighthawk. I'm looking forward to more mod impressions.

 

So I've played them constantly for about 40 hours with my Master-11 and I swear they sound better right now than they ever have (they were already burned in for 200 hours). It could be a combination of the M11 being at its maximum detail after being on for so long, but they are sounding really good.

I'm trying to unlock their full potential before my review unit goes back down the street to AQ.

 

Probably. I turned it off and will listen again tonight. Maybe it's the magic of NOS!

Update: I think it was the magic of NOS and using the Schiit Pyst cable and brain burn-in that managed to make them sound better, combined with refraining from using the HD650 for a couple nights.

If I didn't have the Sennheiser, I'd actually be able to fall in love with the Nighthawk. Once you get used to the sound, it is quite good. Very smooth and luscious. They also look stellar, are comfortable, and smell strangely addictive. I don't know what it is about that weird liquid wood smell, but I've come to like it.

Anyway, the Nighthawk is a good can. If they could keep it priced below the Sennheiser HD650, I'd even recommend it to a lot of people. As it is, I think it's great for jazz listeners but not as good in many other genres when compared directly with the ubiquitous Sennheiser HD6x0.

 

Got bored and decided to have a shot at modding the Nighthawks. Mine are significantly burned in and I quite like the sound TBH, I'm just modding out of sheer curiosity to see what happens. That said, I remember thinking that the NH's sounded like they had insufficient damping when I initially got them, so I wanted to play around with that first. So far, I've swapped out the stock cable for a pretty little eidolic+copper litz number I found for cheap on head-fi, removed the original black material from the cups and replaced it with some sorbothane. I had previously thrown alpha pads on them and proceeded to immediately put back the stock pads, as the alpha pads brought out way too much bass for my liking. Further mods to come as I find more free time/money to play around with it.

Like I said, I quite like the sound I was getting out of the NH's already and don't plan on significantly trying to alter the sound signature. With what I've done so far, it sounds like it's got a little punchier bass and better layering but I've got no measuring tools (yet) to really back this up. I'll post updates as I acquire more materials, tools and experience.

 

Finally got around to putting velour pads on them. The soundstage and imaging improved by quite a bit, there seems to have been a small loss of bass while the treble got quite a boost. Going to try to see if I can somehow keep what it's done to the soundstage in future mods while going back to the tonal balance I had previously

 

So much this. Can't wait for the AudioQuest DawningEagle to come out.

(Just a joke, folks, I have no idea.)

 

Got inspired by the @stratocaster hd800 mod and decided to shove some microfiber I had on hand into the gap between the pads the pad retention ring. Treble is now more closely in line to how I like it, I'll keep playing around with it and see what happens.

 

Got it to roughly where I want it to be. It's lacking a bit of subbass for my tastes, but I think my current mods have me 95% of the way there with how I like headphones to sound. Currently, they're slightly less bassy with a bit more upper treble and mid presence vs stock, generally sounding flat with a slight emphasis around 4khz to my ears. Current mods are as such:
Sorbothane damping in the cups
2 Small sheets of bamboo-based poly batting behind the driver
1 sheet of toilet paper folded twice so that it makes a square, placed between the pads and the driver
2 circles of thin felt shoved into the pads
The protective semicircle of foam from the Nighthawk's packaging shoved in around the back edge of the pads
Brainwavz angled velour pads

 

Few months later and I'm guessing driver burn-in did it's magic. In any case, I've reverted a lot of what I've done and it is pretty close to stock externally, as the mids have come forward and the bass flattened out significantly. I've kept the Sorbothane and extra damping added behind the driver, but everything else is pretty much stock. Bass is gently rising from 20hz to about 120hz, then is flat all through 1khz. There's a slight dip at 1.5khz, 6khz and 7.8khz, but it's roughly flat throughout the rest of the range to my ears up through 12khz, after which there is a gentle roll off up to the ends of my high-end hearing around 17khz. I've got the new Schiit Jotun on order, so I'll be looking forward to seeing how it'll affect them, as I'm currently running them off a Magni/Modi 2 Uber stack.