Imagine a speaker that conveys a level of clarity rare to see in even the best stereo systems, while seamlessly blending into your living room as a stunning work of art. That is exactly what the Waterfall Audio Niagara XT1 delivers. It is the perfect marriage of form and function with some of the best microdynamics I’ve heard in a speaker at any price point.
When I tested the Waterfall Audio Niagara XT1, I was initially expecting a speaker with a design that was very form over function since it was surprisingly small and looked more like a piece of artwork than a loudspeaker.
However, once I connected it to my amplifier, I couldn’t believe the level of transparency the speaker conveyed. Whether it was older recordings or modern instrumental music, the Niagara XT1 showed no signs of weakness despite what volume level or genre of music I threw at it. At $23,000, it had some big expectations to meet, but I can confidently say it is worth every penny.
The Niagara XT1 is surprisingly small and light for its performance, weighing in at only 44lbs and standing 39” tall by 9.9” wide and 10.4” deep, it’s quite the compact speaker. But don’t let its looks or stature fool you, the Niagara XT1 can play surprisingly deep, being rated from 28khz all the way down to 42hz. It achieves its surprising bass extension with 2 5.9” woofers and a hidden 8.3” passive radiator in the base of the speaker.
The Niagara is also quite amplifier friendly, I have recently reviewed many speakers with minimum impedances as low as 2.9 ohms, the Niagara, however, has a nominal impedance of 8 ohms and a minimum impedance of 4 ohms. This means that the Niagara XT1 does not demand the most esoteric amplifiers in order to get their full potential, and with a sensitivity of 89db, they won’t require outrageous amounts of power either.
Overall, unboxing and setup were incredibly easy. From unboxing to full setup took less than five minutes. The speakers are surprisingly light and easy to move around, with simple but well-built packaging. The boxes were sturdy and had plenty of thick foam which allowed for easy transportation and setup.
The speakers also feature a hidden passive radiator in the bass with a weight that is adjustable to tune the bass to your room which was very helpful in getting the incredibly articulate bass that these speakers are capable of.
The Niagara takes one of the most unique approaches to speaker design I have ever seen in any loudspeaker both visually and from an engineering perspective. I had the opportunity to speak to some of the folks at Waterfall Audio and it was quite clear that visual design was at the forefront of their minds when making this speaker.
With a full glass cabinet and a solid wood horn for the soft dome tweeter, it resembles a contemporary sculpture more than a traditional loudspeaker, but that is hardly a negative in a world full of drivers stuck in the same matte black MDF boxes.
The Niagara is unique in that it both stands out for its striking looks and the wood horns, but blends in surprisingly well with the glass cabinetry while the custom built mid/bass drivers, supplied by another French company, Atohm, appear as if they are suspended in mid-air. This allows the Niagara to be both the centerpiece of your stereo system and your home, without taking attention away from any of your furniture or decor. It doesn’t conform to the idea that a loudspeaker has to be a big wooden box full of drivers that takes up half the room.
The Niagara XT1 may come off as a design first speaker, but in practice, it is anything but that. I haven’t been this impressed by a speaker for quite a while, I could not for the life of me find something major to dislike about this speaker. It has an incredibly neutral tonality with just the right amount of detail in the highs without being fatiguing with poor recordings or at higher volumes. What stood out to me the most, however, was the Microdynamics.
The Niagara XT1 has, without exaggeration, some of the best microdynamics I have heard in a loudspeaker at any price point. It does an exceptional job of letting all of the instruments come through without overpowering any details in the background. An excellent example of this is Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov’s Dance of the Tumblers, performed by the Minnesota Orchestra.
There are so many instruments scattered throughout the mix, but every one comes through incredibly clearly and even the faintest pluck of the violins is picked up by these speakers, even when the song crescendos and the drums come in, you never lose the speakers all the way in the back of the soundstage. Even further than that, because of the Niagara XT1’s exceptional neutrality, all of the instruments sounded very natural, with none coming off as enhanced or forward.
When I listened to the Niagaras on some more modern music, all of the traits I observed continued to show their face, with Promise from HAEVN’s Wide Awake album, you can hear his lips smacking and even the saliva in his mouth at the beginning of the song. When the string instruments come in to the far left and right of the soundstage, you hear every note, even when the track becomes more dynamic and the vocals come in center stage.
My only nitpick with the Niagara XT1 is that I wish that there was more output down low, however, that is easily remedied with a quality subwoofer. The advice I always give to anyone looking to purchase their first stereo system is that you can very easily add bass, but it’s incredibly difficult to add clarity to a pair of speakers.
The Niagara XT1 certainly has some serious competition at its $23,000 price point among the likes of Sonus Faber and Bowers and Wilkins. Both the Bowers and Wilkins 803 D4 and the Sonus Faber Serafino G2 are also incredibly high performance tower speakers with stunning looks to match.
The 803 D4 has more dynamics down low, with a wider soundstage, but lacks the neutrality of the Niagara and its ability to play poor recordings or higher volumes without becoming sibilant or fatiguing. The Serafino on the other hand, goes for a warmer tonality than the Bowers or the Niagara, focusing on a more rich and refined sound as opposed to the more transparent Niagara.
The Serafino excels in the midrange and low end but loses to the Niagara in microdynamics and neutrality. All 3 are excellent speakers with gorgeous looks and fantastic sound, and all bring something unique to the table, but the Niagara XT1 is no slouch even among the giants of audio, and leaves the conversation unmatched in transparency, neutrality, and detail retrieval, delivering an incredibly detailed and clear soundstage.
The Niagara XT1 is one of the best combinations of in-depth engineering and carefully thought out design. The amount of engineering shows in how well the speaker performs in all genres of music at all listening levels. This speaker is the ideal choice for the music lover who wants their high performance stereo system to work with the design of the room, rather than fight it.
It is unflappable in its tonality and even poorly recorded songs sound fantastic with its exceptional soft dome tweeter. It easily shows its worth both sonically and aesthetically and is very amplifier friendly, especially for high end loudspeakers that routinely ask for large power reserves and very capable amplifiers to sound their best.
The only real weaknesses I could find are minor nitpicks at most, with the lack of included leveling feet being a minor inconvenience that is easily reminded by either the end consumer or the dealer. The only other nitpick, the lack of low end bass, is fixed quite easily with any one of the many high quality subwoofers on the market that give the Niagara XT1 the extra push it needs to be part of the perfect stereo system for any music lover.
Waterfall Audio really made something special when they created a speaker that looks amazing and sounds even better, with sound as clear and transparent as the glass that makes up the speaker.
