The NightOwls are packaged, built, and accessorized like a $700 pair, and their sound is quite unique.

Whatever it is, I am very glad I bought these. Perhaps that weird sensation comes from a combination of those elements. But, it is rather pleasant and engaging in a different way from a highly colored sound, intense dynamics, or extreme resolution is. Anyway, the NightOwls have that sensation to them, though I'm not sure what exactly that comes from. Things seem hyper-real and oddly intense, as though what you see is more impactful somehow. The closed-back NightOwl Carbon further advances the state of the headphone art, replacing NightHawk’s sound-diffusing grille with an intelligently designed aperiodic damping system for excellent. Everything is clear, yes, but there is always that slightly disorienting, vertiginous sensation as you move through the world with them. AudioQuest takes the first of many steps toward satisfying those interests with two new around-the-ear models: NightHawk Carbon and NightOwl Carbon. The best I can come up with is that it is very similar to those first few days after getting a new set of prescription glasses.

However, the heart of it is: these sound great, but they present sound in a strange, hard-to-describe way. I was saying things like 'the bass is glossy' and 'soundstage is like a pyramid,' and after trying to type something up I realized my wording sounded ridiculous. I was going to write down some impressions on these after listening a while, but I found myself struggling to describe the sound.

Audioquest nightowl sound leakage