Audioquest Niagara 1200 Review (Power Conditioner/Surge Protector)

[Doodski]

just leaving this here

View attachment 144961

View attachment 144962

Hehe@... "Uncompressed Current Transfer" and "Amp is Being Strangled."

 

[beefkabob]

Based on the pictures above, it is beautifully built (apart from the input IEC), contains a ton of surge (MOVs and gas discharge) components, an adjustable (preset) over voltage and plenty of filtering. No DC blocking.

Expensive yes, but I'd be happy to put one in behind my HiFi.

Then all the gorgeous build quality and be hidden in a box behind a tower of boxes. Why bother?

 

[xarkkon]

Kudos to the owner of the product for being brave enough to send these across for review! Thank you for your sacrifice!

 

[wwenze]

Usefulness of the product aside, I think there are useful things to learn from these measurements...

For example on first glance the before-vs-after FFT plots don't seem to show much attenuation? I can sort of see a -5dB at 20kHz and even nearly -10dB at some frequencies but for the 2kHz to 10kHz range, it's like it never moved? I wouldn't have missed -3dB @ 5kHz. Heck, it looks like there is more energy / more spikes at around 4kHz now.

What are possible reasons for the mismatch? AP doing sweep sine for frequency response hence missing out on steady-state noise/components? Oh wait... I did answer my own question... sweep sine does not care about harmonic content since its contribution to output level is too low. But wait, so this means this filter blocks fundamentals but lets the harmonics pass? Nnnnnnnnnnn.......

Second possibility, the test setup. What if we feed this test setup a good clean 100V 60Hz from a known good amplifier?

 

[Labjr]

The video sounds like an infomercial. At least Ron Popeil sold products that worked.

 

[Angsty]

Based on the pictures above, it is beautifully built (apart from the input IEC), contains a ton of surge (MOVs and gas discharge) components, an adjustable (preset) over voltage and plenty of filtering. No DC blocking.

Expensive yes, but I'd be happy to put one in behind my HiFi.

I have a $200 SurgeX to protect most of my components, but I can’t use it with my power amp. The “inrush current elimination” feature which protects my other stuff kills the ability of my amp to draw instantaneous current for musical peaks with my low impedance speakers. Yes, it sounds worse with the SurgeX. So, it gets plugged in the wall socket, unprotected.

I wonder if the circuit design of the AQ has a similar impact with power amps.

 

[amira]

Do we have any details on the device's surge filtering capability?

It uses the same hybrid MOV and series inductor as Furman's SMP (same designer). The over-voltage relay circuit is a really nice feature. But, it's basically a small inductor with 2 little MOVs.

SurgeX/Zerosurge with their massive inductor and additional capacitors would still provide better surge protection.

 

[beeface]

It uses the same hybrid MOV and series inductor as Furman's SMP (same designer). The over-voltage relay circuit is a really nice feature.

SurgeX/Zerosurge would still provide better surge protection.

Thanks, I was actually wondering how this would compare to the commercial grade Furman devices I see at work

 

[Helicopter]

Thanks Amir. Audioquest rewiews are always entertaining.

 

[Anmol]

there should be laws against false advertising of this kind. this is just fraud.

 

[Doodski]

there should be laws against false advertising of this kind. this is just fraud.

Caveat Emptor!

 

[amira]

Thanks, I was actually wondering how this would compare to the commercial grade Furman devices I see at work

It's probably a little bit better, looks like he added a couple more small inductors.

 

[Raindog123]

Caveat Emptor!

Caveat Auditor! (Listener beware!)

 

[tmtomh]

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

AudioQuest is incredibly consistent, have to give them that.

 

[richard12511]

More silliness, no need to watch the video, but I'm thoroughly enjoying some of the comments.

"I bought one and was completely amazed. I’m deaf so plugged my toaster into the Niagara instead. The toast was toasted more evenly and had much more crunch. The taste increased and crummage was significantly reduced! Well worth the money. "

 

[amira]

Here's the Furman SMP board that Garth Powell also designed and is the basis of his AQ surge protection.

Both MOVs are completely unprotected by the series mode circuit. The 1st MOV is also before the over-voltage relay and has no thermal protection. So it's completely unprotected and not part of the LED notification circuit on the front of the unit.

How in the world they can claim that two (tiny) 120J MOVs placed before a small ferrite core inductor is "Non-sacrificial series mode surge protection" is beyond me. This also explains how the let-through voltage on the Wirecutter test was so low. The MOVs shunts most of the surge energy so the inductor only has to absorb a small surge.

So the first MOV could be fried and you'd get no indication that the protection is compromised. At least the second MOV has a thermal fuse and the over-voltage circuit, but it's still only one MOV. Both of those MOV's are taking the surge hit every time. It's an undersized MOV-based surge protector with a little series mode thrown in after the MOVs have done most of the work.

Compare the SMP inductor to the large dual air-core inductors of a SurgeX unit and it's pretty clear it would get saturated quickly without the MOVs shunting the surge to neutral.

If you want an MOV-based surge protector, I would definitely skip the Furman/Audioquest and go with a Panamax. They use the same over-voltage protection circuit with multiple layers of thermally fused MOVs connected to the protection indicator light.

 

[amirm]

So they have me use that garden hose externally but internally they use those skinny wires? How come they twisted the line going to and from power switch on the left but not the feeds to each outlet? With them all being right next to each other, the noise from one outlet will couple into the other.

 

[Zensō]

How do these crooks live with themselves?

 

[pavuol]

before:

after:

 

[beeface]

How do these crooks live with themselves?