Audioquest Niagara 1200 Review (Power Conditioner/Surge Protector)

[Angsty]

One should respect people; one needn't respect all of their opinions and/or statements.

Yes, and there is a respectful way to reply to opinions that one does not share. We should all strive to be so generous whenever possible.

 

[ReevaluateAdNauseam]

Hi John - I definitely heard a difference, but after living with it for almost 30 days and conducting endless back & forth comparisons, I concluded that what I was hearing from this box, I did not like and sent it back for a refund.

I'd like to point out that I "accidentally" performed a blind listening test which sealed the deal for me; here's how it happened: one weekend I wore myself out comparing the power amp plugged into the wall vs plugged into the AQ1200. On my last listen of the weekend, I left it plugged into the wall (as so I thought), and turned the system off to prepare for the work week ahead. It was a busy week requiring overtime and I didn't play my stereo for four days. On Friday, I quit at a normal time and had about an hour to listen to some music before dinner. I put on an original pressing of Beatles "Hey Jude" and played the title track... it sounded awful; thin and anemic - the vocal was rather shrill and the bass was barely there. Erroneously thinking the power amp was plugged directly into the wall, I started looking around at settings on the preamp and turntable, etc. and getting really worried because I know how that song sounds on my system. After everything else appeared to be normal, I went over to the AQ, an lo and behold, my power amp was "not" plugged into the wall as I erroneously remembered, but was plugged into the AQ. I powered down everything, and plugged the power amp into the wall, and "Hey Jude" was restored to sounding like it always has on my system - basically, the opposite of what it sounded like through the AQ.

I did quite a few internet searches and found a couple of people who had the same experience I had: playing music on the more delicate side, e.g., singer/song writer with minimal accompaniment such as acoustic guitar, piano, the AQ seemed to separated out the vocal and gave a deeper sound stage, but when playing heavier, more dense music, the highs seem more stringent and the bass is anemic loosing a lot of it's foundation. Also, after doing a lot of research, I decided for a surge protector to order one from ZeroSurge - absolutely no MOVs are used and it seems they patented the technology that is leased out to others like SurgeX, etc.

Anyway, that's my journey with the AQ1200, YMMV...

--cheers!

You made the right choice! Don't feel bad about falling for the AQ stuff - in the past I used to admire Bill Lowe's creations, even bought some very overpriced HDMI cables.

 

[Angsty]

Bill Lowe is more of a hustler than a scientist, based on the collective Audioquest measurements in ASR.

 

[MoreWatts]

Here are some choice quotes from a thread about this device on the Steve Hoffman Forums. The thread began with a reference to the ASR review, and the poster simply told their readers to "save their money," and skip buying this device. This led to 5 pages and 100 posts. The thread is a mix of ASR bashing and some support.

First, a few ASR defenders:

"If a drug claiming to reduce cholesterol is given to a thousand people and lab results reveals nobody's cholesterol levels drop, should researchers ask them if they feel like they have lower cholesterol, or should they stick to the tests? Do people just 'trust their arteries'?"

"Back to power conditioners, here is a point that I've never understood. These are used usually with expensive equipment. Which have presumably very well designed power supplies. Often multiple supplies, boasted about in their advertising. So WTF do they need power conditioning for?!?!? Seriously, someone explain this."

Our own @MattHooper chimed in: "As expected, this has no effect on the Golden Ears who can hear things the most sensitive devices can not measure, and who can hear things beyond known audible thresholds. How do we know? Take their word for it. (No objective facts can ever dis-confirm their magic power. After all, why relinquish this self-confirming magic power when it allows you to feel superior to the efforts of educated scientists or engineers who say otherwise?)"

Here's the response from a typical listen with your eyes audiophile:

"Honestly I can't take an audio web site seriously that often relies on just measurements to describe how the product sounds. ASR is a bit of a joke for me. When I did a major upgrade to my system in December of 2022, I bought a Niagra 1200 and I can say it made a noticeable difference in the sound of my system. You can't say expectation bias because I honestly expected I would hear little to no difference. The other surprise was I had expected to buy a newer HDTV as part of this upgrade. It turned out the picture on my existing 65" HDTV looked clearer and sharper than it did prior to the Niagra 1200 being in the system. I used the money saved to buy audiophile power cables for all of my gear. My system consistantly sounds and looks better with the Niagra 1200 installed."

This was the next post: "You bought something for $1200 that you expected would not make any difference to the sound of the system?"

At least they allow alternate viewpoints on SHF. Up to a point (Furutech Clean Line Filter discussion eventually banned 'anti-' posts).

 

[tmtomh]

Here are some choice quotes from a thread about this device on the Steve Hoffman Forums. The thread began with a reference to the ASR review, and the poster simply told their readers to "save their money," and skip buying this device. This led to 5 pages and 100 posts. The thread is a mix of ASR bashing and some support.

First, a few ASR defenders:

"If a drug claiming to reduce cholesterol is given to a thousand people and lab results reveals nobody's cholesterol levels drop, should researchers ask them if they feel like they have lower cholesterol, or should they stick to the tests? Do people just 'trust their arteries'?"

"Back to power conditioners, here is a point that I've never understood. These are used usually with expensive equipment. Which have presumably very well designed power supplies. Often multiple supplies, boasted about in their advertising. So WTF do they need power conditioning for?!?!? Seriously, someone explain this."

Our own @MattHooper chimed in: "As expected, this has no effect on the Golden Ears who can hear things the most sensitive devices can not measure, and who can hear things beyond known audible thresholds. How do we know? Take their word for it. (No objective facts can ever dis-confirm their magic power. After all, why relinquish this self-confirming magic power when it allows you to feel superior to the efforts of educated scientists or engineers who say otherwise?)"

Here's the response from a typical listen with your eyes audiophile:

"Honestly I can't take an audio web site seriously that often relies on just measurements to describe how the product sounds. ASR is a bit of a joke for me. When I did a major upgrade to my system in December of 2022, I bought a Niagra 1200 and I can say it made a noticeable difference in the sound of my system. You can't say expectation bias because I honestly expected I would hear little to no difference. The other surprise was I had expected to buy a newer HDTV as part of this upgrade. It turned out the picture on my existing 65" HDTV looked clearer and sharper than it did prior to the Niagra 1200 being in the system. I used the money saved to buy audiophile power cables for all of my gear. My system consistantly sounds and looks better with the Niagra 1200 installed."

This was the next post: "You bought something for $1200 that you expected would not make any difference to the sound of the system?"

At least they allow alternate viewpoints on SHF. Up to a point (Furutech Clean Line Filter discussion eventually banned 'anti-' posts).

Thanks for this summary. The Hoffman forums are full of questionable claims (to put it politely), but as per your comment and the excerpts you provide here, those forums do have a lot of representation from folks who don't believe the nonsense when it comes to power conditioners, interconnects, power cables, cable lifters, and so on.

 

[mmuetst]

Question, what is that tone on 80Khz and why does it not getting smaller after de filter?
when you see the first measurement you see that the filter works:

Then we see before the filter a peek at 80Khz around -80 dB

Then after the filter it is stil -80 dB, that is strange, the signal should be lower.

 

[MacCali]

Question, what is that tone on 80Khz and why does it not getting smaller after de filter?
when you see the first measurement you see that the filter works:

View attachment 352304

Then we see before the filter a peek at 80Khz around -80 dB
View attachment 352305

Then after the filter it is stil -80 dB, that is strange, the signal should be lower.

View attachment 352303

Who knows that’s something in the ultra sonics. But you can clearly see the unit is doing nothing. There’s no difference between direct from the wall and out of the filter.

Whether it is audible difference is highly debatable, besides the fact one has a drop or roll off in the highs.

I always like to point out to the skeptics that Amir has done a test with a power unit, believe it’s B&K, and with that unit you are capable of creating/adjusting a very nasty mains signal. Far higher noise and garbage than what any wall outlet can produce. Even when feeding the test equipment this nasty power the performance of the unit that is being fed the power has no change in measurements.

In addition, this unit is able to actually provide an even cleaner signal when adjusted to be filtering. Far better than almost any power conditioners and filters on the market at a fraction of the cost. Edit: price is around 2000 usd. Considering we have not tested everything and vs what we have tested. With similar results, no change in measurements.

If you really want to test the ability of power interference just buy this and I’m sure you can do a blind test very easily to reach a conclusion if dirty ac makes an audible difference. Again please note, if my memory serves me correct the filtration is only above the audible band. Which is what 99% of all these filters do

 

[MacCali]

Question, what is that tone on 80Khz and why does it not getting smaller after de filter?
when you see the first measurement you see that the filter works:

View attachment 352304

Then we see before the filter a peek at 80Khz around -80 dB
View attachment 352305

Then after the filter it is stil -80 dB, that is strange, the signal should be lower.

View attachment 352303

 

[mmuetst]

Who knows that’s something in the ultra sonics. But you can clearly see the unit is doing nothing. There’s no difference between direct from the wall and out of the filter.

Whether it is audible difference is highly debatable, besides the fact one has a drop or roll off in the highs.

I always like to point out to the skeptics that Amir has done a test with a power unit, believe it’s B&K, and with that unit you are capable of creating/adjusting a very nasty mains signal. Far higher noise and garbage than what any wall outlet can produce. Even when feeding the test equipment this nasty power the performance of the unit that is being fed the power has no change in measurements.

In addition, this unit is able to actually provide an even cleaner signal when adjusted to be filtering. Far better than almost any power conditioners and filters on the market at a fraction of the cost. Edit: price is around 2000 usd. Considering we have not tested everything and vs what we have tested. With similar results, no change in measurements.

If you really want to test the ability of power interference just buy this and I’m sure you can do a blind test very easily to reach a conclusion if dirty ac makes an audible difference. Again please note, if my memory serves me correct the filtration is only above the audible band. Which is what 99% of all these filters do

That is an assumption but no answer to my question. Maybe @amirm can give the correct answer? I don't believe this device will make a difference if you use it in combination with a piece of audio. So you don't have to convince me of that. Just curious what that 80Khz tone is and why it isn't filtered

 

[MacCali]

That is an assumption but no answer to my question. Maybe @amirm can give the correct answer? I don't believe this device will make a difference if you use it in combination with a piece of audio. So you don't have to convince me of that. Just curious what that 80Khz tone is and why it isn't filtered

Definitely, my apologies if I came off offensive.

That’s a tough one. Maybe check his other power conditioner reviews and see the measurements there. It maybe something present in his AC line.

Was searching for an answer, can’t find what the source can be. If it isn’t present in his other reviews it must be something running in his household while he did his measurements I figure