JimmyJet
New Member
I thought I'd jump in here because this thread currently applies to me. For the record let me state up front that I consider myself a practical audiophile, i.e., I just believe in good quality cables, but certainly never audiophool types of cables - all my cables, speaker and interconnects, are by Blue Jeans Cables and I just use the stock power cables that come with my gear.
I have a Dan D'Agostino Progression Stereo amp that has a 3,000 VA power supply transformer coupled to 400,000 microfarads of power supply storage capacitance. It's a true triple down amp rated at 300 Watts into 8 Ohms, 600 Watts into 4 Ohms, and 1200 watts into 2 Ohms. It's powering a pair of Magnepan 3.7i's which are rated at 4 Ohms. I have the Dan plugged directly into the wall and never worried about it because if the power goes out or it gets unplugged, it trips the built-in circuit breaker switch in the back and can't be turned back on until the switch is manually flipped back up. With this switch engaged, the amp is in standby mode, and a soft start relay switch in front turns it on. But I had a pretty big scare a couple of weeks ago, where the system was at idle and I heard a loud pop and smelled electrical ozone in the air (but no burning smell). To be honest, I can't be 100% sure it was the Dan, as the preamp and plasma tv are in close proximation, but it sure sounded like a noise the Dan would make - sort of like a much louder version of the muffled pop it makes after the relay kicks in during turn-on.
Anyway, here's the strange part, nothing tripped and all components seemed fine. I played dozens of test tracks that are bass heavy and shoot the Dan's power meters into the 400 watt range and all was normal and sounded great. I slid off the top of the Dan to do a visual inspection, and it all looked fine - no black soot anywhere, no swollen caps, no burn smell, and the large MOV soldered to the input mains still appeared shiny and new. So, I figured some sort of transient surge passed through with a bang but didn't do any damage (if that's even possible). I called my LAD and he said if it's still working not to worry and I should get an Audioquest Niagara 5000, but when he told me the price, well, that ended the call pretty quickly. So I started researching power conditioner/surge protectors and read a lot of good things about the Niagara 1200 and was at the top end of what I was willing to spend, so ordered it from Upscale Audio. While it was still in transit, I came across this thread, and to be honest, if I had read this first, I wouldn't have ordered it.
But by now, with so much controversy, a 60 day return policy, and the sinking realization that I had just purchased my first audiophool product, I was up for testing it. I plugged the Dan into the 1200's high-current outlet, and my Mac preamp into one of the more filtered low-current outlets. I started with a female vocal test track and the first thing that hit me was the soundstage now had more depth and her voice was more isolated and distinct. Also, the bass was more detailed, and in general, more separation between the instruments. So far, I've done two pairs of with/without tests using the same tracks at the same volume level. So now, I'm in a quandary after reading Amir's test report. I really wanted to be able to say, yeah, this is all b.s. and this thing is just an overpriced surge protector and planned to send it back and just buy a ZeroSurge box. As a music major, I took a class in acoustical technology and one of the chapters in the course book was called, "Psycho Acoustics" - so I understand all that. I also understand that I should not hear what hearing based on Amir's test. Last night I read Garth Powell's white paper, Power Demystified to see his explanation, and to be honest, I couldn't really follow all of it, but what was interesting was his test results using a scope (I'm wondering if @amirm could do the same tests as Garth describes in his paper to see if he gets the same result.)
So you can laugh and flame me, but I really do "think" I'm hearing something, but the point is I really do not want to hear any difference - believe me, I'd much rather drop $1295 on more LPs, SACDs, or other gear, but sheesh, I'm very conflicted right now. I'm also not saying I'm going to keep it as I am still conducting tests with a break of a day or two in between. It sincerely bothers me when the science (Amir's scope tests) shows this overpriced surge protector is doing absolutely nothing conditioning wise, yet I'm hearing more dimension and dynamics with it, or, put another way, with it out of my rig, things sound flatter and a bit more compressed. But I've learned my lesson the expensive way: "Always come to this forum first before purchasing a new piece of gear..." -cheers!
I have a Dan D'Agostino Progression Stereo amp that has a 3,000 VA power supply transformer coupled to 400,000 microfarads of power supply storage capacitance. It's a true triple down amp rated at 300 Watts into 8 Ohms, 600 Watts into 4 Ohms, and 1200 watts into 2 Ohms. It's powering a pair of Magnepan 3.7i's which are rated at 4 Ohms. I have the Dan plugged directly into the wall and never worried about it because if the power goes out or it gets unplugged, it trips the built-in circuit breaker switch in the back and can't be turned back on until the switch is manually flipped back up. With this switch engaged, the amp is in standby mode, and a soft start relay switch in front turns it on. But I had a pretty big scare a couple of weeks ago, where the system was at idle and I heard a loud pop and smelled electrical ozone in the air (but no burning smell). To be honest, I can't be 100% sure it was the Dan, as the preamp and plasma tv are in close proximation, but it sure sounded like a noise the Dan would make - sort of like a much louder version of the muffled pop it makes after the relay kicks in during turn-on.
Anyway, here's the strange part, nothing tripped and all components seemed fine. I played dozens of test tracks that are bass heavy and shoot the Dan's power meters into the 400 watt range and all was normal and sounded great. I slid off the top of the Dan to do a visual inspection, and it all looked fine - no black soot anywhere, no swollen caps, no burn smell, and the large MOV soldered to the input mains still appeared shiny and new. So, I figured some sort of transient surge passed through with a bang but didn't do any damage (if that's even possible). I called my LAD and he said if it's still working not to worry and I should get an Audioquest Niagara 5000, but when he told me the price, well, that ended the call pretty quickly. So I started researching power conditioner/surge protectors and read a lot of good things about the Niagara 1200 and was at the top end of what I was willing to spend, so ordered it from Upscale Audio. While it was still in transit, I came across this thread, and to be honest, if I had read this first, I wouldn't have ordered it.
But by now, with so much controversy, a 60 day return policy, and the sinking realization that I had just purchased my first audiophool product, I was up for testing it. I plugged the Dan into the 1200's high-current outlet, and my Mac preamp into one of the more filtered low-current outlets. I started with a female vocal test track and the first thing that hit me was the soundstage now had more depth and her voice was more isolated and distinct. Also, the bass was more detailed, and in general, more separation between the instruments. So far, I've done two pairs of with/without tests using the same tracks at the same volume level. So now, I'm in a quandary after reading Amir's test report. I really wanted to be able to say, yeah, this is all b.s. and this thing is just an overpriced surge protector and planned to send it back and just buy a ZeroSurge box. As a music major, I took a class in acoustical technology and one of the chapters in the course book was called, "Psycho Acoustics" - so I understand all that. I also understand that I should not hear what hearing based on Amir's test. Last night I read Garth Powell's white paper, Power Demystified to see his explanation, and to be honest, I couldn't really follow all of it, but what was interesting was his test results using a scope (I'm wondering if @amirm could do the same tests as Garth describes in his paper to see if he gets the same result.)
So you can laugh and flame me, but I really do "think" I'm hearing something, but the point is I really do not want to hear any difference - believe me, I'd much rather drop $1295 on more LPs, SACDs, or other gear, but sheesh, I'm very conflicted right now. I'm also not saying I'm going to keep it as I am still conducting tests with a break of a day or two in between. It sincerely bothers me when the science (Amir's scope tests) shows this overpriced surge protector is doing absolutely nothing conditioning wise, yet I'm hearing more dimension and dynamics with it, or, put another way, with it out of my rig, things sound flatter and a bit more compressed. But I've learned my lesson the expensive way: "Always come to this forum first before purchasing a new piece of gear..." -cheers!