The Monaco’s armboards slot in from the side, a pair of 90mm long, machined ‘tongues’ mating with a similar precision piece mounted internally. An integral clamp pulls the armboard hard against the upper face of the internal part, the precision and size of the contact area ensures lateral accuracy. Two locking bolts fitted from above finish the job, which takes around a minute to complete. The tonearm in this deck is, literally, mounted on rails. As to the Opus 1 cartridges, although they aren’t identical in age/mileage, they weren’t identical to start with. Sample variation between top-end cartridges (all top-end cartridges) is huge, so two of the same model is about as good as we can get.
The rest of the system consists of CH Precision P10, L10 and M10 amplification, mounted in a GPA Monza rack and feeding a pair of Stenheim U2-X loudspeakers. The room might be considered small for the size of the system, but careful set up (not to mention the massive X-Base cruciform stands on the U2s) has minimised any bottom-end issues, while delivering considerable impact, presence and immediacy – ideal given the owner’s predilection for jazz, rock and everything in between. It’s also a system I’ve spent plenty of time listening to, through all its evolutions. All in all, it’s a perfect context in which to compare the incumbent Kuzma against the upstart Nighthawk.
Getting started…
The first order of business was to set up the Nighthawk on a spare, 9” armboard. Compared to the early model Blackbird that I’ve been using at home, the standard of fit and finish on the Nighthawk was a welcome surprise. My Blackbird is definitely hand-built: nicely but definitely hand-built. The Night Hawk (and I suspect) current Blackbirds) exhibits far tidier details and finishing, as well as a number of evolutionary benefits. The cueing, VTA adjuster, bias rocker and thrust bearing are now all mounted in a single element, which makes for much neater appearance (and easier, more precise set up). The arm now arrives assembled, with a neat transit clamp to immobilise/protect the bearing. There are additional stiffening elements to create an even more rigid structure. The string finger lift has also been replaced with a neater and even easier to use monofilament element.
The end result of these changes, plus the more substantial I-beam construction of the arm-tube is to make for a product that feels far more solid and can be handled with greater confidence: almost like a conventional arm – and I never thought I’d be saying that! With the arm mounted, one other change is worth mentioning: the heavier tungsten counterweight bars that attach to the underside of the thrust box are now far easier to move. That matters because it’s making tiny shifts to their position that sets tracking force. On my early Blackbird, the magnets that attached the bars were so strong that making small adjustments was a real challenge. Not so now. The tungsten weights are more compact (allowing greater flexibility in placement) and can be shifted easily in small if somewhat less than predictable increments. A little practice goes a long way.
