Question for those of you that have more knowledge on this: I’m about to buy one of the Niagara 5000s on USAM. The seller isn’t offering an option for a power cord, so I’m going to need one. I know I need a c19, 20-amp rated cord, but what exactly should I get? High current, variable current, etc? The room it’s going in also doesn’t have any 20 amp circuits. Which shouldn’t matter, since what I’ll have plugged into it won’t draw that much current. But I thought I should add that anyway.
The best you can put inline. If you’ve got amps or anything that draws a high current, get that. The Shunyata NR cables work well HC if you need it. You want the best cable you can afford in that location but unfortunately you can’t move it elsewhere after that due to the C19 plug, unless it can be easily re terminated to a C15
I will add that since C19 cables are tougher to sell used, the tend to have great deals on USAM.
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There are adapters from C19 to C13 and vice versa so you can use it later
Audioquest recommend their High Current line as a match for the Niagara 5000. The manual has instructions on how you should plug components based on what you’re connecting as well as what to use for the wall connection.
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So something like the Alpha V2, Thunder HC, or Tornado HC would be good choices then?
I was looking at Tornado and Hurricane as the middle sweet spot
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There’s a Hurricane for $1k
and a Tornado for $995
Just at first glance, the Hurricane is clearly the better deal, but the Tornado comes from a Dealer.
Tornado is source cable.
That’s a good deal on the Hurricane. It looks like an older version but I’m not certain and not sure it matters
Sorry, I linked the wrong one.
He also has a Thunder for $795.
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Yeah I think the Hurricane is an older version (red color) and might explain the price.
Yeah, looking at AQ’s site now, the Hurricane is blue/black.
To give you an additional option, I know the Allnic dealer from kevalin audio has some overstock 20A Allnic zl5000 power cords. They’ve been sitting in the dust so you could probably get a solid deal. John is great to work with too.
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As some of you already know a good foundation of clean power can be quite the eye opener to a system, especially coming from crappy electricity.
I’ve had this Inakustik ac 4500p running for almost two weeks now and it undoubtedly elevated the entire system across the board in all the right places. I can’t really name any downsides as it’s an awesome piece of kit, one that I would regret not having in any system I’d ever own.
I guess it’s good to get into some context before I delve any deeper…
I wasn’t planning on upgrading anything related to power since I already have the ps audio P3. But after upping my isolation game recently, it further enhanced what had been nagging on the back of my mind–the P3 was sucking the life out of my music. It’s like a “clean” filter that you can’t turn off. And as the system progressed, the bottleneck became too hard to ignore. I even went far enough to shut down the system for an entire month, choosing not to listen to music (it was also probably the CA heat adding to that).
I had a lot of options around this budget for power distributors, even considered Veritas’ ansuz which had already been sold to Soul at the time. There was also the mighty Puritan, audioquest, and the shunyata stuff too. But after a recommendation from a dealer, I ended up with the Inakustik in the end.
There’s not much in sound I can articulate, unless I compare it to those other conditioners mentioned above, but my impression was that it did no harm to the music. It’s very transparent and resolving yet manages to keep the “musicality” intact–doesn’t color anything.
Loads of texture comes through easily and the shape of any voice or instrument is beautifully portrayed. Dynamics have no issue going through and lingering notes of any kind are captured with excellent control.
The Inakustik really brought out the bass capabilities of the Yamaha headphones. There’s so much low end impact and warmth yet it remains impressively composed and resolving. The yammy bass is typically warmer than I’d like but the sheer quality of it is unmatched (at least from what I’ve heard).
In regards to how it compares to the P3, it doesn’t really lol. It’s an obvious upgrade. The Inakustik is a keeper for me, and I think it will serve as a competent endgame solution for many.
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For me, I couldn’t get rid of the P3 fast enough and as I noted around here when I tried it, it just wasn’t for me, the too clean, too antiseptic and even though antiseptic isn’t the right word, that’s what it felt like compared to the musicality I felt I was losing.
I had a similar reaction as you describe your 4500p with my PSM1512 and thinking back, I possibly would have kept gear I’d moved on from earlier, or at least I know that I didn’t give them the best foundation from which to give me their best.
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Followup on my ground system experimentation that may get some of you guys thinking and perhaps motivated to tinkering yourself. …heheh, tinkering yourself.
I spent some time early on connective various components here and there, trying to hear benefits as I went along and really not getting much in return for my efforts.
I had some sucess in grounding the Mojo Illuminati LPS along witht he Berkeley Alpha USB and the Sonore opticalRendu but beyond that, I wasn’t getting much trying with individual components so I gave up for a time.
Over the last few days I started up again, rethinking the process and using the preamp as the primary ground point and then attaching all of the other components to the buss bar acting as a hub.
It’s not final yet as I may re do some of the cables so they’re using the same type of copper wiring but as is, it’s been a nice improvement and I’m happy I revisited this project.
I think the ideal is tying everything to ground through the preamp as I’ve read a number of philosophies stating that this is and “ideal” as most of the stuff is already connected to the preamp.
So the idea here and why this is supposed to be an improvement is because you take the various and different levels of resistance in the various disparate components, and you equalize them whereas the ground is now of very similar resistance (to within milliohms) across the various components signal chain.
There are a lot of solutions out there, I dicided to go at this with my own, but a critical component to all of this is Puritan Audio Groundhog, which I think now is giving me all it can.
The ground link is thus:
Grounhog > Preamp > Ground Buss Bar > all other components including the ground post on the Puritan 1512 power conditioner.
Really not a lot of money invested here, mostly time, labor and whim. But the payoff has been eyeopening as I wasn’t expecting what I heard.
Layering, reduced noise floor which leads to an improved level of nuance making everything more delicate and overall more engaging.
I have to rationalize away the OCD as the ground wires are a little rats nesty but there’s nothing you can do about it as the cables should be the same length (for assuring the balanced resistance) and you can’t cut cables that are too long otherwise. So stuck with them. I may neaten it and throw some wire ties on them, and since it’s all ground there not much concern but overall super happy with the outcome, especially given the bang for the buck return on the investment.
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Is there a reason for installing outlets upside down? It’s funny I just saw this randomly after cursing the upside outlets strewn throughout my house earlier today.
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Actually yes. The best practice is that if something metalic were to fall on them from up high, and there was an exposed section from the plugh not being plugged in completely, the ground would be exposed as opposed to the hot and neutral which would cause a short.
Does this make a difference in practice? Unlikely but you know, practice what I preach. lol
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. Good info, i was NOT aware of this fact. 
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This is a really direct test with very clear results. Worth a watch.
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Does anyone have any experience with the torus range of isolation transformers? Specifically the models with their SMSS (surge protection)?
We get storms through daily at this time of year and I am always rushing home to shut gear down or leaving it shutdown if storms are forecast which means I’m not getting much listening time.
The idea behind the adding a torus was to add a layer of protection into the circuit or comfort factor… I already have all of house surge protection at the board but I don’t know how well they perform and I dont want to find out they perform poorly the hard way.
Thank you