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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
slaw's avatar
slaw
20,377 posts
 
@skyscraper,

I miswrote.....If you (don’t) need surge/spike protection...……………….
skyscraper OP
824 posts
 
Slaw, I figured so, unless you were messing with me. Thanks,

Mike
jdub071
71 posts
 
Back in the day I had a color darkroom with a voltage stabilizer to keep the line voltage from shifting color balance with fluctuations common in line voltage. I wonder how one of these would work with audio gear as they seem to perform same function.
skyscraper OP
824 posts
 
Jdub, sounds like that would be an interesting experiment. 
skyscraper OP
824 posts
 
I think I’m going to go with the Shunyata Denali 6000S. I found a place to get it for less than retail, and only slightly more than the Audioquest Niagara 5000.

If repairs are ever needed, Shunyata seems like a big enough concern to be around for years to come. It’s less big than Audioquest, but certainly not a boutique operation. Reviews for it are consistently good, as were those I found on the 5000.

I won’t have to worry about the Denali 6000S humming, or dealing with having it modified, so it won’t hum if that problem crops up. Audioquest indicated that a simple modification could be easily be done for their Niagara 5000, if the utilities transformer is not up to snuff and causing that problem. But ten years from now the utilities transformer on the pole behind the house may not be up to snuff any more after routinely electrocuting overly venturesome squirrels two- three times a year. Then what? The Shunyata Denali uses passive technology hopefully obviating that potential issue,

This doen’t make sense, but I also got to thinking the Audioquest Niagara 5000 admittedly is only a poor mans version of their 7000, so its going to be comparatively lacking in some regard from that model. I didn’t get that sense about the Denali 6000S and their higher models. Some said they’re comparable with the Shunyata Triton, and not so much lacking, as sounding a different compared to the Audioquest Niagara 7000,

Stupidly, if I got the Niagara 5000, I’d feel aggravated I couldn’t afford the Niagara 7000, even if the 7000 does have a low hum from it’s isolation transformers. However, if browndt were to send me his wonderful sounding Audioquest Niagara 7000 for Christmas there would be no further sour grapes or jealousy to be mentioned.

So this decision to get the Shunyata is at least partially, but not completely sensible. If it were possible, running an A/B comparison at home would have made this choice less of a crap shoot. But it didn’t sound like from what I read there is all that much difference between the two in any event.

That leaves only an interconnect from my Marantz SA 8005 CD player to the Luxman 507uX Mark II amp yet to be determined, before I’m operational when those Magico A3's finally arrive. Got to run down to Salem and pick up some vibrapods and cones too. I’m going to start constructing new built in shelves for my relocated components tomorrow. Picked up the wood and some simple damping materials for the shelves today.

Thanks again for everyone’s input as I pull into the home stretch on my new system.

Mike
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