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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

Showing 9 responses by inna

inna
7,132 posts
 
For the turntable better approach might be motor controller. I would take Walker Audio not VPI. For the Luxman amp I would buy absolutely nothing to begin with and until it is fully burned in. I would want to evaluate its power supply and determine how much assistance and in what way it needs. Besides, as Bill said, $4k is a lot of cash for something that might become almost obsolete in a few years. Wall current is getting much worse in many areas, so conditioning and voltage stabilizing devices have to catch up.
inna
7,132 posts
 
That I think is easy to measure with a simple device. Each piece of equipment will react differently to voltage fluctuations, and of course it will also depend on the degree of fluctuations. My turntable doesn't have much tolerance for it, nor does my integrated amp. The tape deck doesn't care much unless it is totally out of control.
Your amps power supply should be quite good. But it is not Lamm amps that Whart has, those power supplies probably cost more that your entire integrated. That's why he abandoned even best conditioners of the time.
inna
7,132 posts
 
Whatever Lloyd Walker does is at least good. His turntables are among the very best.
You mean VPI tonearm cable.
If the voltage in your house is unstable you need to stabilize it, just a conditioner won't do it.
inna
7,132 posts
 
Mike, I don't exactly have to measure it, I use PS Audio regenerator and it shows me voltage in real time.
People often plug directly into the wall their power amps with robust power supplies. Your Luxman integrated is three components in one box - phono stage, preamp and stereo amp.
By the way, think of a power cord as an extension of power supply not as an extension of wall wiring, this is a more correct view.
inna
7,132 posts
 
By the way, I never read any review of anything that would tell the whole story.
Another point, since it's important to you, absolutely any company can disappear at any moment, don't count on any service long term.
inna
7,132 posts
 
Mike, you are about to spend $4000 on you don’t know what. It is unknown how it will work in your set up, by itself and in comparison with other devices. And it doesn’t stabilize voltage.
I just felt that I had to warn you.
inna
7,132 posts
 
Since everyone is making recommendations I will too.
To begin with, I would get $130 Furman surge protector/ kind of conditioner and listen for a few months while trying to figure out what is not quite right if anything. Then tell us what happened and we would try to advise. There is absolutely no need to begin with fancy and very expensive units, whatever they are.
Mike, I might just have saved you thousands of dollars. On the other hand, saving too much on speaker cables would be a wrong thing to do. Cables for your set up should be both high resolution and slightly on the warm side of neutral, to be schematic. That's not easy to accomplish and should cost. Power cord for the amp is another matter but again - not $200 piece of junk.
inna
7,132 posts
 
Oh yeah, forgot to mention it. Since you are going to buy fancy conditioner you will definitely need fancy power cord between it and wall outlet. $1200 Shunyata Alpha NR ? Conditioners are not substitutes for power cords, they work together.
inna
7,132 posts
 
Mike , thank you. But I will only share responsibility for Luxman, not cables and power conditioners. One final thought. It's a guess of mine not knowledge. I believe, most of Magico users have digital source as the only or main source, though there are members here with Magico who have both analog and digital sources. Magico people know it and gear the sound to the liking of that crowd. Acceptable set-up for digital may not be best for analog. This includes cables and cords. Anyway, you'll find out.
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