AudioQuest’s Niagara 1000 power strip

[David A]

Hi guys, found this old thread looking for some advice. I bought a Niagara 1000 yesterday at a local audio fair for 800€ from the AQ booth. I heard a lot of controversy about this product (and this kind of product anyway) with one camp claiming none of these products can ever make a difference and the other camp reporting significant improvements. And I wanted to see (hear) for myself.

Tbh, after spending 2 hours yesterday of plugging in and out and testing I am having a really hard time justifying my purchase. If anything, it sounds worse to me (less punch?), than diredtly to the wall but I am not 100% positive if I hear anything at all. I usually have a good ear for subtle differences but here.. no. So at the moment I'm thinking I'll return the thing and be done with this stuff but I would like to be sure befor I do, because of the relatively good deal I got.

Does anybody have recommendations for what to look out for while A/B testing, now that you've had it for a longer time? My skepticism is higher than before I got my hands on one to be honest. Seems to be build really cheap and made to look good and chunky but it feels like it's almost hollow and could be half the size.

I have a D200 running the stock cord but have an AQ NRG-Z3 on the way.

Several comments come to mind.

First, A/B testing. We're perennially told that audio memory is short, a matter of seconds, and A/B testing of power cords and conditioners requires turning components off, unplugging them from one power source, plugging them into another power source, turning the components on again and waiting for them to power up. That takes time and isn't the ideal situation for an A/B comparison but it's the situation we have to deal with. In my view it's not the best way to make a comparison. I much prefer listening with the conditioner for a day or two, getting used to it, then swapping back to the without conditioner setup and listening for a while to see what my overall feelings are. I find when I do that I'm less focussed on trying to identify differences which requires a sort of concentration that isn't present when I'm just listening to music and allows a better comparison of how the overall result sounds. With some changes I find comparing things in that manner leads me to a different conclusion than when I keep swapping between one setup and another after brief periods of listening.

Second, when you use a power conditioner the cord supplying the conditioner has to supply power to all of your components plus whatever power the conditioner itself uses while the cord powering a component only has to supply power to that component. If you believe that power cords can make a difference, and I think it's reasonable to assume that someone who buys a power conditioner believes that power cords do make a difference otherwise they would not be experimenting with power products, then I think it's reasonable to also believe that the power cord supplying the conditioner can make a difference, especially since it's having to deal with a greater power demand than the cord to any single component has to deal with. I remember reading a comment from Nordost years ago that your best power cord should go to the power conditioner or power strip if you're using one because that power cord has an effect on everything connected to the strip/conditioner.

Third, power conditioners are intended to solve power problems of various kinds. Power quality varies from area to area and different systems contain different components which can introduce their own problems. If you don't have a problem in your area and/or your system, then you should not hear a difference because there is no problem to solve. If you do have a problem then the size of the difference you hear should be dependent on the size of your problem, you should hear a bigger difference if you have bigger problems because more should be being fixed. Reviews can be useful but a reviewer usually can only report on what they hear with a conditioner fed by the power coming into their house when it feeds the components in their system. If the conditions related to power and the reviewer's system are similar to your conditions then the results should be similar but if the reviewer's conditions are different to yours the results should also be different. How different the reviewer's results are should be largely dependent on the differences in conditions but personal taste can play a part since we don't all like the same sort of sound. 

Finally, not all power conditioners are equally effective. I've tried several in my system over the years and some have lasted a day or two, some have stayed in the system for long periods. 

I think power cords and power conditioners can make a difference and I hear a difference from them in my system. That's why I use a conditioner and a couple of expensive power cords. Even though I think they make a difference in my system, I think anyone considering power products needs to try them in their own system and I think how you compare the result of a power product can affect your decision. Definitely try quick A/B comparisons to see if you can identify specific differences but also try listening for much longer periods (hours to days) between swaps because you will listen in a different way when you do that and you may hear different things and the quality of the power coming into your house together with the components in your system will also affect your results. How much you can benefit from these products will depend on your own specific circumstances. You can't expect improvements if there's nothing to improve and how much improvement you can get depends on how much there is to be improved.

Finally, you said the 1000 could be half the size. The top face is nearly totally taken up by power sockets. There's not much you can do about the size of the sockets. You could make it half the size but you'd probably end up with half the number of sockets if you did. The number of sockets offered goes a long way to determining the size of the device. I'm in Australia and our sockets are larger than US sockets. I use a PS Audio P12 and the Australian unit is the same size as the US version. The Australian version has 4 outlets and the US version has 8. There's as much spare space on the back of the US version as on the back of the Australian version and there isn't room on the Australian version for a 5th outlet. You really couldn't make the 1000 half the size it is without reducing the number of outlets it offered.