"The vast majority of votes in favor of the GigaWatt strip is nothing peculiar. Since many years Polish manufacturers are successful in manufacturing conditioners, power strips, protection strips and power cables, however the GigaWatt strip stands out with very good craftsmanship and splendid protection circuitry, which will prevent anything bad happening to the attached gear (effective surge and overvoltage protection). But most of all, this is a strip, which will not ruin the sound of the attached audio system. It will not compress dynamics and not soften the bass. This distinction is even more interesting, because last year, the prize went to the cheaper strip, the PF-1."

"AUDIO ACCESSORY 2009/2010 - AUDIO Video Magazine"

Author: Filip Kulpa - "AUDIO Video"

"The PF-2 power strip is not much larger than the cheapest model from Gigawatt, so we were not prepared for such a quality jump. This is really something special – a power strip that not only does not damage the sound in any way, but actually improves it. Progress can be observed in terms of dynamics and transparency. Gigawatt is a splendid proposition for all those, who want to protect their system and improve its sound, and for any reason did not want to go for a conditioner."

"AWARD OF THE YEAR 2010 – HI-FI i Muzyka Magazine"

Author: "HI-FI i Muzyka"

Adam Szubert of P.A.LABS is one of those who believe that a success in building of audiotruth raises and falls with a feed of clean power. Though there is a lot of believers, only a handful of manufacturers has managed to seriously address the issue and even less of them remained serious (in terms of marketing claims) and sane (in terms of pricing) after their very first commercial success. I am pleased to introduce a company which is perfectly serious and perfectly sane: welcome to GigaWatt.

HOW THE SERIOUS POWER STRIP LOOKS LIKE…
"The PF-2 represents in the GigaWatt´s portfolio the highest passive power strip as more sophisticated units are regular power conditioners. In my point of view Adam Szubert found nice balance between overall built and functionality of the strip. It is hefty enough to please the audiophile in us and subtle enough for easy placement."

"I liked couple of details with the PF-2. First, the quality of its assembly is top notch and exceeds standards of the industry."

HOW THE SERIOUS POWER STRIP SOUNDS LIKE…
"The presence of the the GigaWatt in the system was readily identifiable. Music acquired a sense of more weight and I was receiving improved spatial information in all directions. Jeff’s voice was now supported by his body unlike before (direct-to-the-wall) when the sound of the voice had been created rather by his mouth than by his chest. Lateral stage became more relaxed and a tad more organized whereas the depth underwent quite a transformation - not that the soundstage was necessarily deeper but individual sources of sound were more distinct and it was more apparent that both the singer and instruments have a 3rd dimension, a body."

HERE COMES ELVIS…
"Through the PF-2/LC-1 the track was nicely focused, the power strip locked the musicians into proper positions within the soundstage, not leaving them wandering around, like when the system was powered directly-from-the-wall. I was enjoying the same song over and over for circa 15 minutes when I disconnected the LC-1 cord and swapped it for the LC-2. Now, let me say, that I was not prepared for such a change! And it is not just a reviewer’s polite statement. Literally everything had improved; the instruments only now came alive and jumped out of the speakers with believable three-dimensionality and their separation in the soundfield grew significantly. While with the LC-1 we had a nicely defined chorus in the background, with the LC-2 there was no doubt that the chorus consists of individual people. The somewhat ´unisex´sound of the LC-1 became much more balanced tonally with the LC-2, the major improvement however was in terms of its dynamic extension: soft sounds became softer and more textured, loud sounds were louder without any perceivable limitation on the top end and richness of the song just filled the listening room with radiating warmth and emotions. Having achieved such a state of pure indulgence I cannot but assign my highest recommendation to the GigaWatt power system."

FINAL THOUGHTS…
"GigaWatt offers such a solid base and improvement in the sound quality that the money we have to pay are easily justifiable. Honestly speaking, until now I have not come across a power strip that would be sonically justifiable (apart of the benefits of surge protection and multiple connectivity, of course). The PF-2 is the only such a device - to my ears at least - that actually brings performance of any audio system one level up without any notable side-effects. As said, just go and get it, but be prepared for one extra investment: without the GigaWatt LC-2 powercord you might be missing a lot. Audiodrom was using the PF-2 as one out of two power distribution units during our extensive power cords test, and, quite surprisingly, as we had many reputable wires on hand, the PF-2 performed always the best with the LC-2. Hope this piece of information saves you some time…"

Author: Petr Wolf, Martin Justan - "AUDIODROM" Read Full Review

LISTENING IMPRESSIONS
“Until now I dealt with only two strips, which improve sound: PowerTower and Fadel Art Hotline. Now I need to add a third position.

The PF-2 arranges the sound, as if the instruments would appear through its doing. It cleaned the stage and hung a black background, so it is not unusual, that the performance of the artists became more readable. Resolution, dynamics and space relations – in all those aspects sound became better compared to the wall outlet. Without any harshness, extracting details and proving anything forcefully.

Before the listening session I wondered, if the difference made by the power strip will be significant enough to justify the price of the PF-2; over one thousand Euros is not nothing for a distribution box. But now I do not have any doubts. This is a very successful device.”

CONCLUSION
“A further Polish product worth recommending. And this is only the beginning of the line of power products by GigaWatt.”

Author: Tomasz Karasiński - "HI-FI i Muzyka"

“A solid power strip. An audiophile power distribution box for over one thousand Euros, of Polish origin, must be a solid piece of equipment. And it is…”

“GigaWatt proposes 5 models of conditioners and two power strips. We liked the cheaper one very much, and our Readers liked it, giving it the title Accessory of the Year 2009 in our contest.”

“Compared to the PF-1 the 2 is much more solid and heavy. The quality of manufacture is brilliant, just like in the cheaper model. Attention to detail (very nice user manual, a phase detector as accessory, aesthetic packaging) should also be noted, as well as a million zlotys insurance coverage for equipment connected.”

PERFORMANCE
“Compared to the much cheaper strip, PF-1, which affects the sound in a very small extent, the model PF-2 behaves much better. The transparency of the sound stage is much improved.”

“We should also note, that the quality of the cable before the strip is not indifferent. The question arises: if we change the LC-1 to a better cable with the PF-1, can we get the same sound like the PF-2 + LC-1? The answer is no, at least to the extent of economic profitability of such a comparison. The PF-2 is much more transparent (and profits from a better power cable), reproduces bass more thoroughly and resiliently, and no compression is audible at all in the sound. It does not change anything in terms of timbre (...) .”

OUR OPINION
“Over one thousand Euros seems a lot for a strip, but when we compare the performance of the PF-2 to competition from abroad, or to prices of good conditioner, then it will turn out, that we cannot find anything better for this price.”

"RECOMMENDATION - AUDIO Video Magazine"

Author: Filip Kulpa - "AUDIO Video" Read Full Review

Power distributor for demanding listeners. Modest shell outers concept with whom system can really show what is it all about. Congratulation! Wojciech Pacuła - Editor

"BEST PRODUCT 2008 - High Fidelity Magazine"

Author: Wojciech Pacuła - "High Fidelity" Read Full Review

"The Gigawatt strip clearly changes the sound. Although my system costs a lot, I think that this is the level, where the PF-2 can show what it can. In general the sound with the Gigawatt is much more resolving, and at the same time more palpable, one could say “warmer”. This last statement is not fully true, but this is the perception of the changes at first."

"(...) after unplugging the Gigawatt we get a set of random sounds instead of a coherent sound stage. I exaggerate somewhat, because on the long run the differences wear away, but repeating the experiment after some days immediately showed the same, and even led to a better understanding of the character of those changes."

"Nothing is brightened, everything has its place, but under the condition that those, so different elements, are glued together. Unfortunately, the Audionova, at least in comparison to the Gigawatt, had no chance and showed everything is a kind of chaos, I mean maybe clearer – this is the mentioned emphasized midrange – but at the same time worse, with less defined attack and definition of the sounds."

"PF-2 shows everything in a very coherent way, without departing from the speaker line, but giving more freedom to the sounds within their space, without making the impression, that every detail “lives” in its own world. And that was true for every disc listened to."

"I confess, that although I am not a fanatic lover of peripherals like cables, strips, absorbers, etc, because I think that those are much too expensive, but I experience the need of using them. Like with the Gigawatt. This is an expensive peripheral, but if one hears how the system sounds with and without it, it will be difficult to sit down quietly. So I recommend not to try it, unless we are prepared for such an expense. Power strips of the kind of the Audionova or Artech, that I tested at the occasion, are inexpensive and work well, what means, they harm as little as possible. But they cannot do some things. Already the exchange to the power strip from Supra brings improvement, that is appreciated more when the system is improved. Gigawatt goes in similar direction as the Swedish products – the sound gets more organic, coherent, slightly warmed, but this comes from erasing the metallic “emulsion” between the sounds, from deepening them rather than from underlining any of the frequency ranges. It does not have a negative impact on dynamics, it even allows for stronger playing than with a common strip, due to the full transfer. And it gets rid of the slight underlining of the midrange, that can easily be mistaken for higher resolution. I think, that only the most expensive power strips from Fadel, a leader in this area in my opinion, can fight the PF-2."

"For now I am fully convinced, that this kind of expense is fully justified."

Author: Wojciech Pacuła - "High Fidelity" Read Full Review

“The tested conditioner PC-3 left a good impression. Now it was time to have a closer look at the power strips offered by the Polish company GigaWatt. So we took on the more expensive one, called PF-2, which looks are already reassuring.”

“Devices of this kind do not always make us enthusiastic – power strips can be a good protection for audio and video devices attached, but the beneficial influence on sound and vision is not always there. In case of the PF-2 we noticed a significant improvement of the picture on our LCD TV. Not mentioning even a traditional CRT, where the 50Hz picture was as fluent as if it would be a 100Hz one.”

VERDICT
“PF-2 will prove itself in places we look for a solid protection of A/V devices.”

"BEST BUY - HI-FI CHOICE Magazine"

Author: Arkadiusz Ogrodnik - "HI-FI CHOICE" Read Full Review