Audioquest Niagara 1200 Review (Power Conditioner/Surge Protector)

[AudioSceptic]

Some places - eg, Central Florida - do benefit from overvoltage/surge protection:

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...still, in this case I would expect a surge protector be honestly sold as such. Rather than be cloaked into this "the best ever audiophile sound enhancement your money can buy."

Yes, there are many sensibly priced products that do the job, if that's what you need.

 

[Trdat]

Okay slightly off topic but still related, what about the isolated banks that these type of surge protectors sometimes have? Do they protect from a short circuit or no guarantees?

I understand it's protected from a surge but the general protection doesn't do anything for a short caused by us. And would the isolated banks help at all?

 

[gsp1971]

Conclusions
If you want a non-destructive surge protector, the Niagara 1200 provides that. Other than, all the other claims made by the company and its promotional videos are without foundation based on my measurements and listening test. As are such comments from reviewers posted by AQ:

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Darko knows of no other thing you can do to get this level of upgrade? Seeing how there is no upgrade in sound, that is a remarkable statement! As to Herb's comment, please, let's not get our blood pressure up over fantasies.

Company claims in one of its interview videos that AC mains can "distort or mask up to 1/3 of your low level content." And that any differential probe can show it.

Well, I used a differential probe and can't find any such evidence. Even the AC distortion itself is not filtered let alone be 30%. Let's have the company show us this if it is so easy to measure and presumably, they have done so. Why keep such measurement hidden? Wouldn't sell more product?

If you want to spend $1000 on a sturdy box with surge protection, go ahead. But please don't assume it does something for your sound. It does not.

Needless to say, I can't recommend the Niagara 1000 or the RG-Z3 AC power cords.

Oh oh. This will upset a lot of people.

 

[Nango]

This thing is cheap...

...

Yes, I expect the premium mega premium brand names to establish soon monthly fees for using their gear instead of one-time payments.

 

[Harmonie]

Audioquest selling an "audiophile" product made of 100% snake oil? Who would have thought that of these fine folks? /s

I'm truly amazed by the power of marketing.
Next will be to sell a stone, name it Shakti and sell it for thousands.

Maybe it's just human to believe in some story.
The more exotic and unbelievable make people this wish to have it, whatever the price may be.

 

[thefsb]

I participated in a loaner + review program for the Niagara 1000 and later the 1200, organized by Todd the Vinyl Junkie.

Are you a Vinyl Junkie?

 

[wje]

Oh oh. This will upset a lot of people.

Yes, but mainly those with $2,000 speaker cables and cable "risers" for those speaker cables.

 

[Nango]

Maybe it's just human to believe in some story.
The more exotic and unbelievable make people this wish to have it, whatever the price may be.

More than this I think the rationale behind that behavior is that people want to discover first and ahead of the rest whatever which audiophile "jewels".

 

[restorer-john]

A well regulated power supply is table stakes for a high quality amplifier. When I turn off (or yank the plug) on my power amp while it's playing, the music keeps going for a good 4 seconds or so without any audible change, as its power supply drains. If its supply can handle several seconds of no power at all without any hitch in the music, it can certainly handle the typical voltage & noise variations of standard residential power.

An amplifier playing for several seconds after switch off means nothing in reality. It is however an indicator that the manufacturer chose not to incorporate AC sensing and relay speaker disconnection on power on/off and let the amplifier continue to reproduce sound as the supply rails collapse and the sound dies out.

 

[Alcophone]

Are you a Vinyl Junkie?

No, digital only for me. Eventually I'd like to understand what the fuss is about, but I'm in no rush.

 

[MRC01]

An amplifier playing for several seconds after switch off means nothing in reality. It is however an indicator that the manufacturer chose not to incorporate AC sensing and relay speaker disconnection on power on/off and let the amplifier continue to reproduce sound as the supply rails collapse and the sound dies out.

I assert nothing more than the literal meaning: the power supply caps store enough energy to keep the music going for that long. Knowing this can assuage the concerns of people who worry that a relatively small amount of ripple on the AC power will impair the sound. Power supplies are designed to suppress that and produce stable DC. Put differently, a piece of audio gear that shows measurably cleaner output when an external AC power filter is used, with normal residential power, has a poorly enginered or defective power supply.

 

[martin900]

I have the Niagara 5000, one of the best investments for my setup, not kidding. My 230V line at home measures about 400mV on my EMI meter, the Niagara reduced it to 50mV on normal outputs and 13mV on high current ones,

 

[Labjr]

 

[restorer-john]

I assert nothing more than the literal meaning: the power supply caps store enough energy to keep the music going for that long. Knowing this can assuage the concerns of people who worry that a relatively small amount of ripple on the AC power will impair the sound. Power supplies are designed to suppress that and produce stable DC. Put differently, a piece of audio gear that shows measurably cleaner output when an external AC power filter is used, with normal residential power, has a poorly enginered or defective power supply.

Ripple on AC comes from various sources, be it local or grid related. And yes, it does impair the sound. Significantly.

Ripple control (for off peak hot water, peak load switching and street lighting) is seriously intrusive and will make it through to the reproduced audio of practically all normal transformer based conventional amplifiers. In our state, the superimposed ripple frequency on the mains is a coded 1050Hz and an effective filter (which I have) kills it (takes it down by 30dB). Sure the ripple control is a short annoyance at peak load times and often late at night (when I'm listening) and runs for maybe 10 seconds. Just when you are seriously listening to a quiet part- along comes ripple tones! Bah.

This Audioquest device looks to be configured to likely kill a lot of similar mains based aberrations.

So yes, effective filtering of mains based ripple is highly desirable, especially when the majority of gear does not have effective filtering of its own.

 

[MRC01]

Ripple on AC comes from various sources, be it local or grid related. And yes, it does impair the sound. Significantly. ...
So yes, effective filtering of mains based ripple is highly desirable, especially when the majority of gear does not have effective filtering of its own.

That would be an informative test: show how dirty is the AC in different places, or in the same place at different times.
Amir showed this in his test, with and without this filter in place. In his case it didn't seem to make much difference. Do you think he's just lucky and his power is too clean to need filtering? Or do you think the way he tested it didn't catch it and he needs to test differently?

 

[Angsty]

Ripple on AC comes from various sources, be it local or grid related. And yes, it does impair the sound. Significantly.

Ripple control (for off peak hot water, peak load switching and street lighting) is seriously intrusive and will make it through to the reproduced audio of practically all normal transformer based conventional amplifiers. In our state, the superimposed ripple frequency on the mains is a coded 1050Hz and an effective filter (which I have) kills it (takes it down by 30dB). Sure the ripple control is a short annoyance at peak load times and often late at night (when I'm listening) and runs for maybe 10 seconds. Just when you are seriously listening to a quiet part- along comes ripple tones! Bah.

This Audioquest device looks to be configured to likely kill a lot of similar mains based aberrations.

So yes, effective filtering of mains based ripple is highly desirable, especially when the majority of gear does not have effective filtering of its own.

I am totally biased against AQ and I own up to that. Given measured results of many of their products, I estimate that they sell snake oil by the barrel.

Perhaps I missed it, but I did not see in the measurements that the Niagra provides effective ripple control. If I missed it, please educate me.

 

[restorer-john]

Perhaps I missed it, but I did not see in the measurements that the Niagra provides effective ripple control. If I missed it, please educate me.

We can't tell from photos alone, but a telltale sign could be if the unit consumes some power at idle (nothing plugged in). A ripple-like filter is usually a notch and we don't see that from Amir's tests. I don't know what voltage @amirm swept the input to output at. The AP is limited to 26.6V AFAIK. Maybe he drove an amplifier and a step up transformer to put 120V in?

I'm with you- the Audioquest stuff is well into the area of dubious claims, but the extreme pile-on in this thread is unwarranted IMO. We haven't even clarified what it does vs what it claims. The overvoltage cutout has not been tested. The surge arrestors haven't been tested.

 

[DACs_Lover]

just leaving this here

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I dare not imagine how good the D'agostino / Pass / Mcintosh BIG amps measurement will be. If it measures the same or poorer than Benchmark's gears. It will open lot of eyes in audiofool fans. Snake oil products must be exposed.

 

[Angsty]

I dare not imagine how good the D'agostino / Pass / Mcintosh BIG amps measurement will be. If it measures the same or poorer than Benchmark's gears. It will open lot of eyes in audiofool fans. Snake oil products must be exposed.

Stereophile has regularly measured McIntosh gear. Mac measures well, so not snake oil. But, there is an argument for the panther in the piggy bank - this reviewed amp is $9000.

https://www.stereophile.com/content/mcintosh-laboratory-mc462-power-amplifier-measurements

 

[restorer-john]

Do you think he's just lucky and his power is too clean to need filtering?

Our power all over the world is distorted. But luckily, the effects on audio gear aren't too bad. But we have DC offsets causing transformers to hum, ripple control, local solar inverter issues with raising the grid voltage outside the ranges the power companies are required to stay within. I had the exact problem only a year or two ago where transformer taps were incorrectly set giving me a lower mains voltage and outside regulations.