power conditioners in $3000 to $5000 range


Thinking of getting a power conditioner and have been reading up on Audioquest Niagara 5000 and Furman IT REF 20i.
Any thoughts on either or other choices. I plan to use only on audio at this time. Thanks for any input.
128x12826mo18pts

Old thread, thought I would chime in. I have a Saturn PC with 3 rows of capacitor boards. I removed all the #14 wire, and replaced it with #10 Wire. I also removed the Hubble receptacles and installed all Cardas Audio 4181 Plugs. That changed the entire game. Sound stage got larger, sound got bolder and more present. the background is dead quiet, zero noise. 

I work with them so I am biased, but Equitech is the power conditioner/iso system most of the mastering houses use, as well as the best recording studios. What makes them different is this "balanced power design" that is designed to work on ordinary house 120V lines with small demand under 15A (or 20A) total- so like a normal house wall outlet. It’s excellent at getting rid of noise on the line (from other things plugged into the same circuit in your house or next door or on your block). It somewhat depends on how many users/hosues share the same power circuit supplied by the power company but depending on where you live, it could be a big or small number of other users on your incoming [power] line.

What most professional studios do is make sure they have a dedicated power line no one else is using. Then make sure there is no lighting, no motors, no refrigerators or washers/dryers plugged into the same circuit- just the audio system you care about. Then, they isolate this dedicated circuit from the outside world with an isolation transformer system. This is just a unit that has an iso transformer large enough to handle the maximum current draw of your audio system- so typically start with 15A. They plug everything audio into that one transformer and it will be a quieter power than than any other non isolated power line. This can have the effect of drastically improving the sound, or just lowering the noise floor (if your house is quiet enough to hear that). If they need more than 15A, they get more iso transformers on other dedicated audio circuits or a larger draw iso system maybe as large as 100Amps- this is how a recording studio does it.

Most of the "power conditioners" out there do NOT use a transformer and so this type of conditioning is only filtering the line (like EQ reduces unwanted noise on an audio line).  Filtering can help in major problem areas but is not the same as transformer isolation. Surge protectors and power regulation also does not help this. There are different techniques than can help or hurt depending on your situation.

Brad

 

 

Had both and now have the SR Powercell 8 UEF SE. a lot of SR haters on Agon but it is what it is. Phenomenal!
We have tested most of the units on the market the audio magic was far better rhen the audioquest 

Dave and troy
Audio intellect nj
Audioquest would be my pick.
There was a review comparing the Niagra to a PS Audio unit, but I seemed to have deleted the bookmark.
Bob