AudioQuest Niagara 3000 AC Power Conditioner

Before I’d gotten too deeply into the high-end audio game in the 90s (didn’t even use premium power cords back then), I was inspired to get a power conditioner by an article in another publication by my favorite audio writer at the time, Corey Greenberg. He was quite young, like me, and something of an iconoclast. (Another brief article of his, “It Don’t Mean a Thing If It Ain’t Got That Schwing,” should be required reading for audiophiles.) He was reviewing some AC power-line conditioners from different manufacturers and brought a great anecdote into the review’s introduction. One night he was trying to get delicious-tasting lemonade at a film theater. Through experiments with an employee, they found that only by using clean, pure water to start with could they make good lemonade. Even more true today than 30 years ago, you can’t get truly great sound coming out of your speakers without clean, pure AC power to start with.

AudioQuest’s more scientific take on making lemonade is that AC power is “technology that was certainly never meant to power the sophisticated analog and digital circuits used in today’s premium audio/video systems. To properly accommodate the promise of today’s ever-increasing bandwidth and dynamic range, we must achieve extraordinarily low noise across a very wide range of frequencies.”

While we are on the scientific side, what exactly is a “Low-Z Power/Noise Dissipation System”? The short answer is that it is an upscale AC power conditioner/surge protector. “Low-Z” means low measured impedance, which is the combination of electrical resistance, capacitance, and inductance that determines how a passive cable or component alters the AC signals flowing through them. In most cases, high-Z would be bad; it could reduce the amplitude of the AC wave itself, reducing the ability of amps to reach full output or to respond to musical transients with fidelity. It could also run hot, wasting electricity. (The Niagara 3000 runs quite cool.) Ideally, you want to filter noise without holding back the mains’ sinewave of AC power at a frequency of 60Hz.

AudioQuest has even gone one better on this. It claims that the Niagara 3000 not only doesn’t limit current but that the two High-Current outlets can also provide what it calls “Transient Power Correction” (TPC). For a very brief period (up to 25mS), these outlets can provide up to 55A peak current for power amps/integrated amps/subwoofers, so that the voltage does not sag when they need it. Conventional Class A/B or Class D power amps can modulate the AC line as they draw more current during musical peaks, which can be bad for dynamics. My Stamina Class A integrated amps draw the same current (~1.5A each) from the Niagara 3000 continuously, regardless of signal level. Sorry AudioQuest, those don’t test your TPC abilities! However, I did some listening with the excellent AGD Alto and Tempo amp combination, which is Class D (see my review in Issue 338), and it sounded great with this conditioner. I can’t be sure exactly how much TPC was being used, but the Niagara 3000 made a major upgrade to the sound of these amps and to the black silence of their background.

Over the Falls

Before we dive into the listening, let’s look at which Niagara you need for your system. The Niagara series includes four models starting at $1595 for the Niagara 1200, which I have had in my system for two years now and which sounds great. Online, I saw a special for a Niagara 1200/NRG-Y3 package (normally they come with no power cable) for around $1000. So, no one with a system worth $6k or more has any excuse not to get Niagara-level power-conditioning technology. AudioQuest does offer the considerably less expensive PowerQuest Series, though it is better suited for entry-level systems. When you step up to the Niagara 3000 from the 1200, you get two more octaves of Level-X, differential-mode noise-filtering, one more bank of ground-noise dissipation (for a total of three), and two of the high-current TPC outlets (none in the 1200). The 1200 has two high-current outlets optimized for amplifiers, but lacks the current reservoir found in the 3000, 5000, and 7000. The 3000 also has a bigger and fancier chassis, though the little 1200 is quite attractive, too. I had been using the 1200 “face-down” behind my rack, with the outlets pointing up, and indeed it was designed to facilitate this. The 3000 could be used this way also, but it is so deep that it would be in much greater danger of tipping over, and the front panel is such a gorgeous gunmetal-shade  of polished chrome that I didn’t want to hide it on the floor.

As for moving up from the 3000, you can expect the same sonic benefits and more in the pricier models. The Niagara 5000 costs $5900, adds common-mode filtering, two more octaves of differential filtering, doubles the banks of ground-noise filtering, and has greater peak current from TPC on the high-current outlets (90A). There are also nearly twice as many outlets, 12 total, so those with big complex systems might want to spring for the 5000 or 7000. The 7000 costs $11,000, adds four more octaves of common-mode filtering, and two Patented DBS Symmetrical power-isolation transformers feeding all source outlets.   

Enjoy the Silence

Was I blown away by the sound when I replaced the Niagara 1200 with the 3000 in my system? No, not right away. There are a few reasons for this. One, the 1200 uses some of the same noise-reduction tech as the higher-priced models, so I was already accustomed to the wonderful performance it delivers. Also, as AudioQuest preaches, noise dissipation is a holistic process. It takes an entire system of power conditioner and cables to achieve it the way AudioQuest has designed it. So, the greatest benefits of upgrading to the 3000 were especially noticed when I also changed some of the cables to the Blizzard and Thunder. I also must shamefully admit that in some ways the new sound of the music without high-frequency noise riding on the signal sounded “wrong” to me. It took a while to adjust to the purer, smoother, more natural, and more realistic sound with the Niagara 3000. But yes, ultimately it was a significant upgrade from the sound with the 1200.

My Stamina amps pass on more signal than usual, so they sound a bit bright in the absolute sense. (The Stamina is an ultra-simple single-ended-MOSFET design with less filtering, no transformers, almost no wire, and no circuit boards, etc.) Normally, they do not match well with certain interconnects and speaker cables because of their simplicity. Well, the Niagara 3000, the Blizzard, and the Thunder changed all that. By “bright” I mean frequency peaks in the 2kHz–20kHz range (though I can’t hear any higher than 15kHz nowadays). I was surprised by the  way the Niagara and AudioQuest power cables seemed to smooth the tonal balance for the better.

Then came another surprise. I put in the AQ Vodka Ethernet cable, and it somehow perfectly complemented the AQ Yukon interconnects, with a mellowness in the treble that completely canceled out the slight apparent forwardness in the Yukon’s top end. This whole system of Thunder, Niagara 3000, Blizzard, Yukon, and Vodka now sounded incredibly liquid. It was as if they were made for each other (which they actually were). Phenomenal smoothness, incredibly low noise. The whole system, which I know to be a touch bright and a little too analytical and strident at times, now had a special midrange glow the likes of which could normally be associated with analog sound or tubes—none of which were part of my system. I had to keep putting on one album after another to make sure I wasn’t just hearing a lucky accident, where the sound of the system/cables was matching with the balance on the recording. Nope, every single one had the same wonderful qualities.

But then, I had been paying close attention to all the sonic components and the overall balance of the New Mexico Philharmonic Orchestra in rehearsal. My choir, Coro Lux, would be performing Handel’s Messiah with them, and I noticed there was a lot of high-frequency content in live sound. So, for my system I judged the Vodka Ethernet too much of a good thing and went back to the Shunyata Delta V2 Ethernet. The final configuration that was best for my system was Thunder, Niagara 3000, Blizzard (to CXN v2), NRG-Z3 (to Stamina), Yukon, Delta V2, and Goertz MI-2T, though it was a touch too polite and filtered until I moved the NRG-Z3 for the Stamina back to the high-current TPC outlets. Even though my amps’ current draw shouldn’t change with signal level because they are Class A in operation, the high-current outlets sounded better. Go figure.
AudioQuest’s Garth Powell explained that although Class A amplifiers have the fewest issues with current compression when compared with Class AB and particularly Class D, the power supply in a Class A amplifier is still modulated on musical transients, which is why the transient current reservoir and impedance buffer helps.

To put the differences in stark contrast, I did close-in-time listening, starting with my old (90s vintage) Audio- prism Power Foundation III power conditioner, using the same final cable configuration from the previous paragraph. I queued up Simple Minds’ “Street Fighting Years” (Qobuz 16/44)—the tracks which were recorded live in Verona. They have that amazingly huge, natural reverb from the hall. Switching to the AudioQuest Niagara 1200 made subjectively large improvements. The upper treble/top octave was no longer too “hot,” the bass was more solid, and the sense of space was far more expansive. Not only was the presentation less noisy, there was now a lack of grain, which had been so prevalent with the older conditioner that it made high-res tracks sound like they were only 16/44. Then I switched to the Niagara 3000, and the soundstage was larger and more three-dimensional, and the bass extended even deeper. The overall sound was quieter, less bright, and instrumental and vocal timbres were more natural, especially Jim Kerr’s voice—significant, if subtle, improvements to the overall presentation. Very nicely done AudioQuest.

Specs & Pricing

AC Outlets: Source (5); high-current (2)
Maximum input current: 15 amps (RMS)
Dimensions: 17.5″ x 3.45″ x 15.2″
Weight: 28.9 lbs.
Price: $3900

Associated Equipment
Sources: Cambridge Audio CXN v2 streamer/DAC, or CXC CD transport with DacMagic 200m DAC (streaming from optical ethernet link with Sonore opticalModule Deluxe)
Integrated amps: STAMINA single-ended, Class A, MOSFET monoblocks; Cambridge Audio CXA81; Bluesound Powernode Gen 3
Preamp/power amp: AGD Alto and Tempo
Loudspeakers: Paradigm Founder 80f, Paradigm Premier 800f
Digital cables: AudioQuest Vodka and Cinnamon Ethernet and Coffee SPDIF, Shunyata Research Alpha V2 and Delta V2 Ethernet
Analog cables: Interconnects: AudioQuest Mackenzie and Yukon XLR and RCA, Shunyata Delta V2 RCA, Kimber Hero RCA; speaker: AudioQuest Rocket 88, Shunyata Delta V2, and Alpha Core Goertz MI 2T (all bi-wire)
A/C power: AudioQuest NRG-Z3, NRG-Y3, Blizzard, and Thunder cables; Shunyata Venom NR-V10 and NR-V12 cables; AudioQuest Niagara 1200 conditioner; isolation transformers for network gear