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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
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knownothing
1,612 posts
 
Yes, I am referring to EMI.  I am not an electrical engineer so have only an audiophile’s interest in the subject and some trial and error experince under my belt including designing, assembling and using a few power cables.

That said I have experienced great benefits from power conditioning with audio in both dirty office environment, and with a relatively “clean” home power setting with dedicated circuit, breaker, 10 guage romex to high quality outlet.  

With the former, I could not get any kind of natural sound without separate power conditioners on the amp and then on all digital sources plus the sub.

At home I am running my amp and sub directly to dedicated wall outlets (few electric storms and power surges in my area), and all other analog and digital sources from dedicated outlet to qualty power strip with Shunyata Venom Defender which worked miracles on hum in my analog source and provides inky black backgrounds and good soundfield with no apparent reduction in speed of transients or slam for all sources.  My experience with this simple product should bode well for your use of the Denali.

I use a bunch of different cables including Shunyata Diamondback, but am very pleased right now using modestly priced digital and speaker cables from Audioquest and interconnects and power cables from Nanotec.  And I try to manage wires in the back to stay away from one another as much as is reasonable.  YMMV.

kn
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knownothing
1,612 posts
 
The critcal issues for power cables are speed of current rise, current capacity, protection from external EMI and protection from creating excessive EMI.  Everything matters in this regard from to connectors to the conductors to the dialectric to the conductor configuration.  There are many different designs, and you just need to determine which is highest performing and cost effective solutions for you.

Typically, PCs for amps do not utilize shielding, while PCs for digital sources do.  

Shielding is used in digital power cables to effectively reduce RFI/EMI, important for keeping noise out of the cable, but also important to keep noise generated in your digital gear within the cable and harmlessly drained to ground.

Amp power cables typically do not incorporate shielding in order to maintain unrestricted macro and micro dynamics. Complicated geometries are often employed to concentrate the current towards the center of the conductor weave, providing some shielding from external sources, as well as mitigating radiation of RFI/EMI.
skyscraper OP
831 posts
 
Appreciate the further explanations, Knownothing.  I'm definitely going to need to research this subject more, The simplest thing to figure out will probably the interconnect between my relatively, inexpensive CD player, a Marantz SA8005,  and the Luxman 507uX II amplifier. I think what I'll do there is purchase a modest Audioquest interconnect that comes in at 20% of the CD players value. We do have an Audioquest dealer in Roanoke who would let me swap out cables if I liked.

That would simplify that matter. That CD player was purchased before I decided to upgrade my whole system, and it's the only component  I would consider upgrading down the road if I acquire more CD's. 90% of my source material is vinyl records. 

The power cables I'll definitely need to look into further. I'll keep them as far away from the low voltage cabling as possible as you suggest. I'm going to see if there isn't some simple mechanical means to shield them, starting with the shielded hospital grade 12 amp power cords, maybe conduit. I'll need to look into the other variables the cords are designed to deal with, some of which you mentioned. I'd honestly be horrified if I needed to buy a thousand dollar power cord. But you have to do what's necessary, like it or not. Thanks,

Mike
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knownothing
1,612 posts
 
You can get budget aftermarket power cables that provide over 50% of the improvements that SOTA cables provide at 1/10 of the price. The opposite of diminishing returns.  

Give the cable company your budget and tell them your gear and they may recommend an uneven distribution of costs between cables based on what they think will provide the biggest return.  Or look at Pangea cables from AudioAdvisor or Signal Cable as a place to start.  You may get the best results with the most expensive power cable on your CD player, difficult to prejudge.

Modest AQ IC is a good place to start for that.
jafant's avatar
jafant
19,901 posts
 
skyscraper

swapping cables and power cords is the best approach until you reach products that compliment your system. Take full advantage of your local AQ dealer, retailer.  Have fun!

Happy Listening!
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