70 hours burning inâŠ
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wow⊠another 2000 and you are thereâŠyeah not really
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Got my second pair just 2 days ago from amazon.de, brand new (I had to return my previous one and got something else few months back). Tuning is just silly but they do magical stuff with small ensembles. Great addition to detail monsters.
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Nighthawks arrived today!
The previous owner was nice and left a note stating that he only had about 20 hrs of burn-in, so I guess I have some work to do 
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My nighthawks carbon arrived today. I bought them used for 160 euro. The original bill says that it was bought end of may 2020. Condition is really âas newâ.
I have to work a lot today and tommorow. So iâll have a listen on thursday and friday.
First sonic impression: The tonality reminds my the meze 99 classics. Both have elevated bass which bleeds into the the mids. Both are warm headphones with rolled off treble. The sound of the nighthawk reminds me more to the closed meze 99 than my fidelio x2. The fidelio has more treble, but after a short listening i can definitely say that the nighthawk has better imaging and better bass quality.
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I had a longer listening session with the nighthawk carbon today. I am really glad, that the carbon comes with the velour pads and the standard protein pads. The standard pads cause a really heavy treble roll off and a strong bass bleed into the mids. I was really shocked about these two sound issues. The bass bleed was so strong that it ruined some songs for me. For example a piano heavy song like the moonlight sonata (2nd mov). The treble roll off ruined some songs with female vocals, especially if the song was mixed with the vocals upfront and the instruments more in the background (for example Faith Hill - There youâll be or Christina Aguilera on the new Milan OST). The background instruments were too recessed and due to the roll off (and on combination with the bass bleed) there was a loss in general details. I would prefer my fidelio X2, which doesnât reach the sonic or capabilities of the nighthawk, over the nighthawk carbon with protein pads, because i can listen to every song with the X2. Some songs work fine on the X2 and some are ânormalâ, but the X2 never ruins a song completly.
Then i swapped the pads and boy is this a big difference. It is like a completely new headphone. The NHC with proteine pads has almost the same warm sound signature like my closed Meze 99 classic, but with a stronger bass bleed.
With the velour pads the sound signature isnât dark anymore, it is v-shaped and for my taste a lot better. The bass is still deep and strong, but not as prominent as the bass with proteine pads. There is still a little bit of bass bleed in lower mids, but for most songs it isnât a problem and it doesât ruin songs completely.
I give a tie in the mids between these two headphones. The NHC has better mid detail, texture and way better seperation/imaging, but the mids are also a little bit laid back. I wouldnât call it recessed, but just relaxed. The X2 delievers the mids a little bit more in the face. Vocals for example are more present. And this is a sound signature in the mids, which i prefer. The mids on the NHC are still pretty good, but they suffer from the very slight bass bleed.
But the biggest change is in the treble. Treble is even more elevated then in the X2, but it is more even. The X2 focuses in We belong together by Mariah Carey more on the vocals. The NHC has more present hi hats. I think that the X2 has more soundstage width and more bass quantity. But the NHC with velour pads wins in the other categories (general texture quality, soundstage depth and height, imaging, seperation, impact, more even treble).
I will have more listening sessions between these two and my tygrs, but i think, that my beloved X2 will get sold after a couple of years. The NHC will get more listening time for sure than the X2âs.
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Do you have these powered to an amp and dac for the protein pads? To my ears they just sound relatively more close to neutrality on the treble with the other pads definitely not all that V shaped. Those other pads btw are actually a type of Micro Suede and only come with the carbons not the original nighthawk.
The nighthawk doesnât work well with my ifi zen dac, which isnât a strong dac/amp per se. I had technical issues with my geshelli archel 2.5 pro amp, which i could fix on the late afternoon. The treble issues seem not to be as strong on the geshelli but i have to listen a little bit more on the geshelli with protein pads to check this.
I can use the NHC with the micro suede pads on my zen dac with activated bass boost and i reach almost the same bass quantitiy as with the protein pads, but without the bass bleed. Then i can switch to the geshelli without the bass boost of the zen dac and i have the superb v-shape signature, which is definitely an upgrade in comparison to the X2.
I also think, that iâll try a piece of toilet paper with the micro suede pads to bring the treble a little bit down. But i do also enjoy the elevated details in the treble.
Quite the interesting thoughts about the hawks.
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Glad to see youâre enjoying them so far and many here will agree that the micro suede are the preferred pad 
Just out of curiosity have you spent much time burning in the drivers? Itâs almost universally accepted that these significantly improve with a substantial amount of burn in (maybe not quite 150hrs though lol)
Personally my brain had to acclimate as well. Once this process was complete I really enjoyed them and still do.
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100 hours burning in. Iâm done. Going back to my others HPâs to compareâŠ
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I admire your dedication 
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Blasphemy I say!!!.. hahahahaâŠglws.
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very bittersweet, but moving up the chain haha
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Understood⊠As have I, but will keep them as they were my first âŠ
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Hell, mine donât get much head time, but I put them on last night and wow! Really really glad I have them, I did have to swap back to stock pads thoâŠthose suedes are just too good. 
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Listening to the Emu Teaks for the first time today, they kinda remind me of the hawks, anyone else heard both?
I kind of have both but my Hawks are OG⊠To me I donât really see the comparison but maybe it is just me.
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yea wouldnt say crazy simular, but kinda both have that speaker like presentation? Hawks are def more laid back