AQ Niagara 5000 Vs P12

As any one done A/B with PS P12 vs AQ NGR 5000? I cant afford P15 and looks like P10 is discontinued?

So I need a good conditioner in the 3K range…

Local dealer is ready to sell new NGR 5000 @ 3K… should I proceed or P12 is better?

For a short period of time I had a Niagra 5000. It had a loud, in my opinion, hum that I could hear in my kitchen next to the equipment. It drove me nuts. I contacted Audioquest and they were nothing but helpful. The bottom line is that they thought the quality of the AC coming into my house was “dirty” causing the transformer to sing. They stated that the piece was doing it’s job. I traded it in for a P20 and it is dead silent. Interesting to note, at times, distortion coming in to my house, pins the meter at 8 per cent. Last night, it indicated 8.1 per cent. Maybe AQ was correct. I have been very happy with the P20.

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That is usually caused by a DC offset on the AC line:

The P20 has a DC blocker at its input which would explain why the P20 wasn’t humming.

I had the opposite issue with my P20 where it was actually adding a DC offset after regeneration. The folks at PS Audio couldn’t figure out what was going on. My power amplifiers each have 2.2kV worth of transformers and they would hum like no other when connected to the P20. When plugged directly into the wall my amps hum was inaudible.

I know you are looking for a comparison. I cannot offer that, but do like what the P12 has done for my system. The OLED tv looks better. SGCD & M700’s sound smoother. Conrad Johnson PV10 preamp and MV55 poweramp sound the best they have ever sounded.

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I don’t think it’s risky to say that the regenerator will be better. The P12 is excellent as are the P10’s that you can find used. It depends how much juice your system demands. There’s also the P3.

I have a P12 and love it for my (mostly) all digital system here. Input hovers around 4.0% distortion in and 0.1% out. I am thinking about getting another for my D&D 8c’s on the other side of the room.

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The maximum input distortion from my electrical service reads 1.2%.
(maybe the electrical service isn’t as bad as the number of power outages leads me to believe)
The input distortion typically reads at 1.0%
The output distortion from the P12 reads 0.1%
The output sinewave is improved from the input sinewave, with the top curve appearing cleaner and smoother than the spikier and more jagged input from the wall.

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