AudioQuest Nighthawk

Keep us posted, I still have my OGs.

 

How does the Nighthawk compare modded?

PM incoming.

Nighthawk had hybrid pads as an option at one point. Appears not available on Amazon but you can at least see what they looked like.
https://www.amazon.com/AudioQuest-Hybrid-Earpads/dp/B0006DPNHG

 

I sent him both sets of my pads (Hybrid / OG) The Hybrid was more balanced and comfortable, but it is still a Nighthawk in its DNA. That DNA is sweet honey.

 

Can't even find the hybrids on ebay.

 

I do prefer a modded Foster for now, but that's mostly because I spent a very long time perfecting my recipe with those cups/baffles etc. With the cups back on the Nighthawks they are still far from ideal (1khz dip is stubborn and noticeable and low mid decay lingers even though amplitude is reduced vs before) but I'm not done tweaking. A lot of my materials are packed up for moving so it might be some time before it all locks in, limited tools in the kit for now. In terms of raw ability I think the Nighthawk drivers are more capable than the common Foster though not TH900.

Edit - I'll publish all of my findings and hope to come up with a solution that's simple and effective enough for anyone to DIY. Hopefully easier than ESX mods...

 

Life comes first. I've got plenty of headphones to hold me over and I don't think the community is necessarily pining for this project, so back-burner until you are passionate about it. I think the idea at Audioquest is great. Just needs lots of work.

 

FYI, the hybrid (classic) pads were included with the original Nighthawk, while the microsuede (ultrasuede) and protein leather (boost) pads were included with the Nighhawk Carbon. After the Carbons came out, I believe all pads were available a la carte; though, if memory serves, the availability was always somewhat intermittent, then Audioquest pulled the plug on them altogether, so I'm not surprised to hear that they're difficult to track down. Here's Skylar's rundown of the various pads on Head-Fi.

 

TLDR: Dont use the stock skinny cable.

———

Audioquest I guess is/was a cable company first. The Nighthawk came with two cables: one regular with gold connectors, and one fancy fatty with silver connectors. The purpose was to demonstrate the sound qualities of cables. But the demonstration was rigged as explained by diyah.:

The difference in crosstalk between these cables is an audible 10dB. The silver cable has -34dB crosstalk and the gold one -24dB. These are audible levels and explain differences between the 2 supplied cables.

The difference in resistance thus makes the difference here. The low impedance of the driver combined with the unusual high resistance of the gold cable does indeed create an audible difference that is perceived as less ‘full’ sounding than the lower resistance silver cable. It isn’t perceived as ‘less loud’ which one would expect.
Also the difference in resistance leads to a different stereo-separation and stereo-image due to the common return wire.
It would seem as AQ added a ‘poor quality’ cable with nice looking gold plated connectors to ‘show’ how ‘good’ their more expensive cables are.
Some people might think .. ah well so the silver is a better conductor which explains the difference in resistance. This might SEEM to be the case BUT the ‘trickery’ involved here is that the used conductors in the ‘gold’ cable are MUCH thinner than in the ‘silver’ cable.
It’s that diameter difference that is the real cause of the difference in resistance.

So now you know… the ‘silver’ cable plays a little LOUDER and has a different stereo-image (crosstalk, not crossfeed) on purpose to ‘show’ their customers how ‘important’ the cable is but secretly tricked you by adding a higher resistance cable which you may just as well throw away ?

 

Thanks @edd guess my fake woodies have the hybrids!

Been a while since I took them for a spin - been hoping someone would figure out a mod to unfuck the FR.

 

Ev as the "classic" and the alcantara/ultrasueue/microsuede, but I think he's removed the drivers from their housing and has his own wide array of pads to try out. Finding the balance of leak on the front and back is what I assume he will be working on to balanced the tonality a bit. The driver has plenty of clean low-end extension, it's just trying to figure out how to tune it more 'normal'. I found the bass addictive after long listens, but it can't be all about that all the time. I think where Ev went with the ES900 (Which I haven't heard, but understand the concept) is probably where this driver will end up and it will be preference.

I still think the HP-3 driver from Klipsch would be another viable option for messing with. Too bad that dude moved quick to Pioneer and then we never heard from him again??

 

To backup @E_Schaaf ’s impressions that Nighthawk driver is closer to TH900 level than other Fosters, distortion measurements from Tyll.:

TH600
TH900
Nighthawk

*Nighthawk is open though so …

Ill have Nighthawk, TRX00, and ETA Supra-G to compare soon.

 

Would these mods be applicable to the sealed Nightowl version too?

 

@Poleepkwa : @E_Schaaf recently said he would be busy moving across the country soon. He hasn’t responded to my Nighthawk PM so checks out. Id guess that the exact same mods wouldnt apply to a closed version but some version of similar mods would help.

Looking back at the Tyll measurements the Nighthawk may actually have nicer looking distortion than TH900. @purr1n do you have TH900 measurements? I cant find them here or on Changstar.

My Nighthawk arrives today. The night club frequency response looks like my idea of a good time.

 

It would be nice if we got klippel measurements on drivers, but that isn't traditionally something that a manufacturer would EVER give us. All these measurements were NEVER given to us because everyone distorts the truth in between the lines.

 

Note to self: google “klippel measurements”.

 

It isn't really "layman" type information. It is just good info for the manufacturer to design their systems around. I believe Marv was around at the same time as I on the DIY-MA forums. The forum owner there developed his own 12" driver that was quite wonderful, but just like all audio, it isn't a complete science for everyone. The DIYMA driver is very much like the Solaris bass driver - and quite a bit of the reason I didn't like it. I'm a JBL live sound kinda guy. I was able to meet a few car audio guys who did full JBL studio front stages in the dash of their S-10 with a blow-through. Shove a nightclub into a S-10.... whoaaa!

Anyways - I found a happy medium for car audio subwoofers somewhere between the Dan Wiggins XBL^2 stuff, the DIYMA12, IDMAX, JBL GTi and ended up with a little Pioneer 12 " with "aramid fiber" driver.

 

I was at DIYMA for about a year and went to a couple meets. Learned some from having to use DSP and REW. I had a 10" Pioneer sub. Don't need a lot with the cabin / room gain is what I remember in my VW hatch, but more is more better.





Only listened for like 30seconds before measuring and that was enough to want to try the hybrid pads already. Sounded u-shaped, closed-in, good bass.

 

My last "system" was super simple with the invention of DSP (Alpine 9887 with Imprint). I just used the ID XS 6.5's in the front as a point source and a single 12" pioneer ts-w12prs driver. Simple with auto-dsp. For what it is (daily driver with an ipod) it is just fine. Good high/center image and enough resolution to make out the words.

 

Hybrid pads sound much more linear.

edit final / update: This is Nightawk with hybrid pads. I left one line in orange because its from the first pass. These measures all valid within the realm of variability of mehsurements:

 

That sucks if the driver matching isn't dialed in I think Skylar and Audioquest probably had two visions and it just was difficult to realize without the ability to manufacture in house.