[Miiksu]

My is very soft, like a mocca leather. For a car window cleaning.

 

[heavyharmonies]

I'm terrible at modding. Should I skip these? EQ is OK for me.

Not at all. I'm not a modder either, and just a bit of EQ at the far ends of the spectrum make these sing.

Caveat: I'm speaking specifically about the HI-3050; my HF-580 are still en route. In theory they are identical in performance, but one never knows.

 

[Hal Rockwell]

My is very soft, like a mocca leather. For a car window cleaning.

Mine is artificial chamois leather. I guess that's why it got stiff when I dried it out comletely. When it's a bit wet it's as soft as the genuine chamois leather, but unusable for headphone moding.

I switched my angled hybrid pads to flat hybrids. Didn't help much with the hot treble. I'll try a different tape mod later to see if it helps.

I cut two pieces of magnetic sheet in similar size to the pieces of chamois leather you made, and covered them with a carbon fiber decal. It does change the envelope of the sound. Didn't have enough time to listen to it, to decide if I like it or not, though.

I think that this track is not that good for testing treble performance. It has a clean synthesized treble, which is something completely different than real cymbals.

 

[filthyweeb]

 

[Miiksu]

Mine is artificial chamois leather. I guess that's why it got stiff when I dried it out comletely. When it's a bit wet it's as soft as the genuine chamois leather, but unusable for headphone moding.

I switched my angled hybrid pads to flat hybrids. Didn't help much with the hot treble. I'll try a different tape mod later to see if it helps.

I cut two pieces of magnetic sheet in similar size to the pieces of chamois leather you made, and covered them with a carbon fiber decal. It does change the envelope of the sound. Didn't have enough time to listen to it, to decide if I like it or not, though.





I think that this track is not that good for testing treble performance. It has a clean synthesized treble, which is something completely different than real cymbals.

Yeah but I have listened that so many times I know how it performance with great headphones. The tempo is much better with good headphones and it's easy to tell is the bass, middle and treble at correct place but one song does not give u all information. That looks neat Hope you like the new back mod.

These two songs has too much treble. Good for testing is the upper frequencies on right place and the tonal balance.

 

[GirgleMirt]

Hf580 has its own tonality something towards Nighthawk in some degree.

That is some scary stuff. If the Takstar is anything like the Nighthawk................ Does it mean that it has some kind of weird incoherent bass that sounds just wrong/unnatural? Sounding like the nighthack is not a good thing.... Not a good thing at all...

The tempo is much better with good headphones

Does the Takstar play too fast or does it play too slow? Hate it when headphones don't quite get right tempo... I had headphones which were always draggin, just a hair... Made me go nuts!!!

 

[stimuz]

That is some scary stuff. If the Takstar is anything like the Nighthawk................ Does it mean that it has some kind of weird incoherent bass that sounds just wrong/unnatural? Sounding like the nighthack is not a good thing.... Not a good thing at all...


Does the Takstar play too fast or does it play too slow? Hate it when headphones don't quite get right tempo... I had headphones which were always draggin, just a hair... Made me go nuts!!!

I haven't heard the Nighthawk, but have you?

 

[stimuz]

Hmm, the sliders on the 580 aren't terrible, but I really like the high amount of resistance it has on the 3050. It will not budge unless you want it to.

 

[Joong]

That is some scary stuff. If the Takstar is anything like the Nighthawk................ Does it mean that it has some kind of weird incoherent bass that sounds just wrong/unnatural? Sounding like the nighthack is not a good thing.... Not a good thing at all...

The sound signature of hf580 as of now (not burn-in) is not as transparent as Hd800 / He-560, but it has sentiment of Nighthawks and more like Takstar pro 82.
The sound seems to have thicker mids as in the way of pro 82.
Hf 580 is good for small band, but lacking something in for big band like classical orchestral music where all my headphones have been focused.
In comparison to Nighthawk, the timber shares but the tonal density seems lacking AKA not as detailed as NH.
I should wait until fully broken in.

 

[GirgleMirt]

I haven't heard the Nighthawk, but have you?

Of course... I wouldn't have commented if I didn't... I only listened to them for a couple of minutes and that was enough for me to realize that I did not like them... What I wrote soon after:

Spoiler: 'Review'

Pros - Comfortable
Cons - Dark sound, uncompetitive at price point
Heard these with Chord Hugo and boy oh boy was I unimpressed... These are not worth anywhere their price point where their sound is concerned. Decently comfortable though.

The sound signature is just not pleasant, it's not very detailed or musical, just too dark and there was definitely something weird going on with the bass; rather overwhelming and kinda unnatural sounding, couldn't get passed it, anyway, it's way too expensive for its performance IMHO... Even at half the price it would have serious competition, at full price there's no reason not to pickup a better sounding headphone... I just really didn't dig these audioquest headphones...

I guess YMMV, as per comments below and other reviews, many seem to enjoy them... Personally, Hifiman 400i imho easily takes the cake at ~300$ less (650 vs 350 cdn$). Even AKG Q701 have much better tonal balance, I think they may even just plainly be just a better headphone... My advice would be definitely audition and compare them to other headphones, definitely not ordering blind...
-----------------------------
h1f1add1cted wrote:
Sorry but even this is not really a "review" this guy is right, this head phones are bad, especially for the price, it's a bad joke - that's my opinion. No different source or longer time using these will change anything, if the sound signature does not fit with your taste - there is no way to change anything. If you like dark, muffle, wrong sounding head phones than this is the right choice.
----------------------------
GirgleMirt wrote:
Tell you the truth I was shocked at their price/performance, and when I saw that 7 out out of 10 scored it 4 or 5, I was equally shocked and just felt compelled to lower the score... I'm still shocked/wondering how these can be so expensive and sound so off... For the price, I just couldn't find any redeeming factor to their sound... Name it, soundstage, imaging, bass, treble, mids, just not good at this price point... I'll just have to agree with h1f1add1cted in saying that, for me, they just sound bad... Ok maybe not that bad, just not good, for the price... :\

Spoiler: From others, for your and my amusement..

Thus the NightHawk has good bass (though a bit on the fat side, the overshoot) mids that are clearly audible but lack ‘clarity and detail’ and treble that is too soft and lacks accuracy because there is too much ringing. It is said these sound ‘speaker-like’ .. well if your speakers sound like this it is time to look for better ones or seriously look at improving the room or position of the epakers.
----------------------------
Too much of the midrange sucked out on these for me. Horribly so, to my tastes. Treble not as smooth as HD650. Sounded darker and less alive up top compared to HD650 too, subjectively. So goddamn boring. Stage made me feel like I was suffocating. Hotel California from HFA had the stage size of me sticking my hands over my face. No air whatsoever. HORRIBLY veiled. Like throw-this-in-the-trash veiled from top to bottom. Seriously, it ranks down there with the EL-8 Closed as one of the worst headphones I have ever heard. Well, I guess the bass wasn't too bad. Didn't seem to bleed much for me. Probably low distortion making it sound less bassy than I expected.

Your measurements still make me think this pair has some of these qualities, like the lacking mids. But your impressions seem much more positive than mine. I wouldn't expect this headphone to have much variance from unit to unit, but I can't help but wonder. Everyone at Tyll's for that weekend just shook their head at the Nighthawk he had. We all agreed it was flat out bad.
----------------------------
I heard these just days ago from my go to system: moded Cavalli Ehha Rev A and moded Soekris Dam next to moded HD800 and HE400i and Oppo PM3, MSR7 and HD700 and bunch of others. I liked the silky, fluid presentation of the Nighthawk, while it is coloration to me, i enjoyed it with many songs. The wet coloration is slightly reminiscent of a wet tube sound, like Apex Pinnacle, but out of not wet amp. The overal tonality was weird/wonky to my ears, but not massively distracting. It had good technicalities, maybe nearly HD650 level. Hard to say if i'd take these in place of HE400i. Different strong points. PM3 loses to both, but it's closed so it plays defferent game anyways. The Nighthawk is interesting hp and i could see myself owning it for speshial moods and tracks.

Anyway, quite troubling if they remind of the nighthawk, which I vaguely recall remember reading had some idiosyncratic design goal that didn't really work... Anyway, I would expect better even from 200$ planars... Hell, I'd easily go for a pair of Q701s rather than AQ Nighthawks... Like I said, if the Takstars sound anything like the Audioquests, that is not a good thing.

 

[Joong]

I am big fan of Nighthawk which is my only alternative to HD800 if there should be.
Even though Nighthawks have polarized opinions, it is one of the most dynamic and highest tonal density with distortion free phone out there.
I think if you insist your own favours and tendencies for favoring in large spectrum of flavors of sonic lands, then you might loose considerable things.
Basically flavors can be developed by certain extent of training in positive way.
Fundamentally there is no bad or good phones but different phones as your ears/brain are no way considered as absolute neutral.

 

[stimuz]

The sound signature of hf580 as of now (not burn-in) is not as transparent as Hd800 / He-560, but it has sentiment of Nighthawks and more like Takstar pro 82.
The sound seems to have thicker mids as in the way of pro 82.
Hf 580 is good for small band, but lacking something in for big band like classical orchestral music where all my headphones have been focused.
In comparison to Nighthawk, the timber shares but the tonal density seems lacking AKA not as detailed as NH.
I should wait until fully broken in.

Hmm, it's probably genre preferences, but my HE-560 have been in my drawer for the most part after I got my hands on 580s.

 

[nraymond]

Fundamentally there is no bad or good phones but different phones as your ears/brain are no way considered as absolute neutral.

There sure are fundamentally bad phones. The classic example is the Walmart three dollar buds:

https://www.innerfidelity.com/images/WalMartThreeDollarBuds.pdf

As far as fundamentally good, I'd argue there is that too, and it's a just a matter of degree. Disagreements about what is good are mostly due to the complexities and limitations of human language and the collective coordination and effort required to develop the experience language to understand and express what we are experiencing individually with regards to the collective and a grounded reality. Also it's much easier to talk and write a way that most probably reinforce notions you already have than it is to be challenged, so most people aren't tuned for collective progress, and forums and the online experience will reflect that.

 

[Miiksu]

That is some scary stuff. If the Takstar is anything like the Nighthawk................ Does it mean that it has some kind of weird incoherent bass that sounds just wrong/unnatural? Sounding like the nighthack is not a good thing.... Not a good thing at all...


Does the Takstar play too fast or does it play too slow? Hate it when headphones don't quite get right tempo... I had headphones which were always draggin, just a hair... Made me go nuts!!!

That was hilarious and sad same time I mean the bass reacts faster and it feels the tempo is faster. It get my heart rising a lil faster.

I think I got lowest register slighly better.I need to do more tweaking but not sure of that new back dampering because sometimes I got the spike at 14.5 kHz and sometimes it measures a dip. May be also too much upper frequencies.

 

[Hal Rockwell]

@Miiksu,

I found the culprit that was causing the sibilance after the mods. The cause of it was the horizontal tape mod.

Fliping it to vertical position keeps the highs sharp, on the verge of sibilance.

Removing the tape completely, relaxes the highs even more, makes the soundstage bigger, and makes the sub-bass more prominent.

I decided to go tapeless. Just sounds more enjoyable to me, even if it doesn't measure completely flat.