Audioquest vs. Blue Circle Power Conditioner Quality


I have a Blue Circle FX2 6 XOe Power Line Conditioner from about 10 years ago. Only conditioner I've ever had. The reviews at the time for BC products were outstanding, saying these easily competed with other brands at many times the price. Unfortunately, BC has closed down, but their owner is still active in a newer company.

I'm interested in an AQ Niagra 1200 that I can get at a good price, but not sure if it will have any advantages over the BC.

Gilbert from BC was sort of a mad scientist guy who really pushed the technical limits of his products, but AQ is a bigger company with likely much better research/test/manufacturing capabilities.

Is anyone able to speak to the differences between these units, if one is better than the other?

Thanks.

 

jaybe

@gdnrbob Thanks for that. Great article.

I now recall that I bought a used PS Audio Perfect Wave P3 about five years ago. It was in my system for about a week, then I sold it and went back to the Blue Circle. I don't remember why exactly, but there seemed to be less "life" to the music with the P3.

It's possible with a bit more tweaking it might have been better, like how they treated the conditioners in your linked article.

I also use a Niagara 1200 with a Blizzard power cable and it has performed well in my system.

I have the Blue Circle FX2 6 XOe Power Line Conditioner since about 2018 and have been very happy with it, and it was a steal at $500. I've been reading reviews of other recommended conditioners lately, thinking up upgrading, like AQ Niagara, PS Audio Re-gen etc, but the prices take my breath away! $3-6K? I'm very frugal, and not willing to have death by 1000 paper cuts. 

Review from PF of the Blue Circle:
https://positive-feedback.com/reviews/hardware-reviews/blue-circle-fx2-6-xoe-power-line-conditioner/