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Power Conditioners: Audioquest Niagara 5000 or Shunyata Denali 6000S

I’ve been trying to decide which of these two power conditioners might make a better purchase. Do any of you own either, have chosen one over the other, or better yet, gotten to A/B them? I’ve found some, but not a lot, of information online comparing the two. So I thought I’d ask if any of you might know something more.

They both come in at $4000 retail which is my budgetary limit. The Niagara is active, the Denali passive. Some threads compare the Denal a little less favorably to the twice as expensive Audioquest Niagara 7000, for what that’s worth. I heard that the Audioquest Niagara 5000 may hum or buzz under some cirumstances. Anybody have that issue? I’ll probably never get a chance to demo them out here in the hinterlands so I’m hanging on your every word before I drop another wad of cash on one or the other.

There is also an Audio Magic conditioner at the same $4000 price point, but I didn’t quite understand it’s function in comparison to the other two. I’ll have to reread that product description.Someone else recommended a Richard Gray model that confusingly turned out to be a giant-sized surge protector.

Anyway I’d appreciate if any of you have any input on this somewhat obscure topic of power conditioners. I’m looking at one of these two power conditioners as opposed to a regenerator, or pure isolation transformer, or other type of line conditioner. If it’s of any import my equipment is a VPI Classic 2 SE turntable with an Ortofon 2M Black moving magnet cartridge, a Marantz SA8005 CD player, a Luxman 507uX Mark II integrated amp, and Magico A3 speakers all to be on a dedicated line and plugged into the conditioner. I am not interested in purchasing used.

Thanks for any input or advice. I hope someone out there knows something about these two.

Mike
skyscraper
skyscraper OP
836 posts
 
Inna I demoed the Magico's with vinyl records only, so I'm fairly confident that analog should be okay.  Perhaps the cd player will work even better.

I left out a word in my post above. I am going to use a dedicated Romex line straight to the power conditioner from the service panel, so there will be no power cord to it. It's almost like hard wiring, except I'll put a C19 12AWG 20 amp hospital grade plug on the end of the Romex. We'll see how that works.
I honestly don't understand in what way a power cord could improve the function of a power conditioner. I'm not saying it doesn't, I just don't understand how it might. I do understand how an inferior cord, or zip cord, could degrade the signal from the wall outlet to the power conditioner, but I'm eliminating that cord completely by running the 12AWG Romex straight to the power conditioner, so there should be no signal degradation other than what the hospital grade plug might provide.

Somewhere along the line I'll try an experiment and insert a audiophile quality cord between the Romex and the conditioner and see if there is any improvement, or change, in the sound of the system.  And don't worry, I always accept responsibility for whatever decisions I make. I was only trying to throw you a compliment for taking the time to reply to my posts and helping me figure things out.

Mike


cleeds
6,246 posts
 
skyscraper
I am going to use a dedicated Romex line straight to the power conditioner from the service panel, so there will be no power cord to it. It's almost like hard wiring, except I'll put a C19 12AWG 20 amp hospital grade plug on the end of the Romex.
You might want to check with NEC and your local electrical code. What you describe doesn't sound compliant because Romex isn't intended for that use.
skyscraper OP
836 posts
 
Cleeds I’ll take a look at the NEC. I’ve got an older copy. If not, I’ll use a 20 amp, 12awg hospital grade power cord having the C19 plug. I was thinking of being lazy and doing that anyway.

P.S. I looked it up online. At first glance It appears you have to put the Romex in conduit if it’s exposed. Since that would still be odd with the plug exposed. I’ll go with the 12AWG stranded hospital grade power cord instead. That should be about the same difference.

Now I’ll have to go back and put some conduit over an exposed length of Romex connected to my furnace, which did pass inspection years ago. That’s where I took the idea from. I certainly don’t want any code violations that would give my insurance company an excuse to not pay off a claim if the worst was to happen. Thanks cleeds fot the good advice.

Mike
rzado
176 posts
 
Hi Skyscraper,

In a week I should be able to provide a more informed comparison that may be of some interest to you on the Shunyata v. Audioquest issue, but right now I have in house both an Audioquest Denali 5000 and the latest Shunyata Triton v3, which I am comparing to my current Purepower 3000+.  

As of this time, I have not had enough time to give thoughts on the Shunyata, but I was not impressed by the Audioquest.  Like pretty much every serial filtering conditioner I have tried, it presents a mixed bag of audio qualities.  In my system, it constrained the soundstage, bringing everything forward towards the plane of the speakers, and produced a more pronounced lower midrange.  If one's system is laid back, it may provide the sense of more excitement or jump factor, but I found it fatiguing. 

Caveat 1 - I only use power conditioners on front end components, not amps
Caveat 2 - my default power setup is pretty good, with all dedicated AC lines wired with Cardas in wall cable and Oyaide R-0 outlets, with an Eritech 10ft chemical grounding rod surrounded in bentonite clay.






tastyfreeze's avatar
tastyfreeze
135 posts
 
Clean power is a beautiful starting point.  
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