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Mains conditioners: audioquest niagara vs puritan audio experience

I have a Puritan 156 in my system and didn’t find that it sucked the life out of the music at all. In fact, when I removed the 156 from my system, I certainly notice greater background noise (not such a black background) and there was a distinct negative impact on fine detail. Detail seemed lost in the wider mix. I can’t comment on the others mentioned, but I am a very content 156 user. I recommend you give it a try for yourself. I believe the unit can be returned if you’re not happy with it.
I plan to add the Puritan mains leads quite soon.

Good luck
Peter
 
I can’t speak for the Audioquest unit, but I’ve recently bought a Puritan Audio from @MarkieW here

pinkfishmedia.net

[FS] - Puritan PSM136

My Puritan PSM136 is up for sale due to system change round, it is no longer needed. Not that old, had it since Feb 22. Comes with 1m classic power cable to plug it into mains. In very good condition RRP is £1195, yours for £900 inc delivery in S London/SE area as I cant find the original box...
pinkfishmedia.net pinkfishmedia.net

I bought it to see if it would reduce some minor buzzing I hear on my SL10 and Heed Orbit psu. Interestingly, it didn’t make any difference to either of them, and I don’t really have a spare £600 to invest in hifi at the moment, but thought I ought to have a listen first. I’m glad I did.

I played a few of my favourites first sans Puritan (Erykah Badu, Buck Meek, Whitest Boy Alive) to get my ears in, and then plugged the PSM136 in.

I really needn’t have bothered with the sighter tunes. The difference was immediate and not insubstantial. The soundstage was higher and wider, with better separation. Somehow, the resulting sound is both more relaxed and more detailed, which makes no sense at all really. The Lindemann has a digital volume display, so you can be very sure about what level you listen at. Through Qobuz, I listen at 28 - 30, but I’m now listening at a couple of clicks lower, with the same enjoyment. I’m particularly happy about this, as I have tinnitus, and as much as I love my kit, low db sound reproduction isn’t it’s strongest suite, as opposed to, say, SET valve amps I used to use.

The weirdest thing is that we’re not on mains power here. We have a solar array and batteries, with a generator for the winter months, so it’s not like the Puritan is cleaning up a dirty/poor quality mains supply. It has exactly the same positive effect whether the genset is running or not.

I’m all too aware of the placebo effect, so I’ve deliberately held off posting this until I’ve listened more, with and without the PSM136 in circuit. The effect is the same every time I take it in or out. Bear in mind please that I’m a total cable agnostic, and really wasn’t looking to have another £600 invested in my system (especially with a half renovated house!) but I don’t think I could be without this unit now.
 
Got a puritan 156 yesterday and connected it today using the ground connected to an earth rod a few feet under listening room

Even just using a humble sonos into the eix dac you can hear more realism in music , pretty good really .played eric bibb jericho before and after 156 and pretty big difference , heaven help it when when i get my qobuz sorted out !!! That will be stunning ......
 
Niagara seems an inappropriate name for a power supply. A bit like calling an Indian restaurant The Ganges. The bottom line is I wouldn’t rush for an appointment with either of those.
 
hifinutt said:
Got a puritan 156 yesterday and connected it today using the ground connected to an earth rod a few feet under listening room

Even just using a humble sonos into the eix dac you can hear more realism in music , pretty good really .played eric bibb jericho before and after 156 and pretty big difference , heaven help it when when i get my qobuz sorted out !!! That will be stunning ......
Click to expand...
Good stuff! Over the last few days I have been installing my ground rods and today I connected them to my Puritan Ground Master. I have put two 8ft long ground rods in the ground about 10ft apart. I started with a 5lb lump hammer then swopped to using an SDS+ drill on hammer only before then going to a ’proper’ sledge hammer. The sledge hammer seemed to do the job the easiest of all of them once I had wrapped some heavy material around the above ground length of rod to stop it swinging around Whilst I was trying to hit it. I bought my rods (5/8ins copper coated) from Screwfix together with the connectors and cable clamps.

I only had time to connect the Groundmaster earth wires to some of my devices (Dave, Antipodes Oladra, Puritan 156) before @karlsushi called round for a prearranged coffee, listen and natter. The system was sound pretty darned good today but I’m not sure how much of that if any was due to the Ground Master. That comparison will be a weekend job as well as connecting up the rest of the kit to the Ground Master

PS. Many thanks to Karl for bring his Bricasti M3 DAC. I had been wanting to hear that because it was a Bricast M1 SE that I sold many years back in order to buy the Dave.
 
fantastic nick , thanks . we certainly had fun putting them in under the floor of the lounge !!! think we got the rods from screwfix too
 
Fourlegs said:
Many thanks to Karl for bring his Bricasti M3 DAC. I had been wanting to hear that because it was a Bricast M1 SE that I sold many years back in order to buy the Dave.
Click to expand...
Hi Nick,

How's the Bricasti M3 doing in your system ? I suggest you make sure it is on the latest firmware (1.11) via the Status menu.

I have just bought one s/h and I found through pre-purchase testing at home that it's very good value and not Digital Analysis Validation Equipment.
 
Interceptor said:
Hi Nick,

How's the Bricasti M3 doing in your system ? I suggest you make sure it is on the latest firmware (1.11) via the Status menu.

I have just bought one s/h and I found through pre-purchase testing at home that it's very good value and not Digital Analysis Validation Equipment.
Click to expand...
Karl only brought it for the afternoon while had coffee, a natter and listened to some tracks.

I can see why people like it and it is pretty darned good. Did I think it challenged the Dave? Well no, not really (bear in mind that I had a Bricasti M1 SE and sold it to buy the Dave instead). But I can see that the M3 will make nice noises in many people’s systems.
 
Any recommended dealers to get the psm156? On Black Friday one dealer had it for £1295 but can’t find the same deal now
 
Funny that audioquest chose Niagara as the name for their series of power conditioners, as the Niagara Falls generating station is nothing more than a tourist attraction these days, and the Niagara watershed is a slightly watered down virtual equivalent of an open septic tank.
 
yes their niagara cables been around for many years so i guess it made sense . Must say i have the 1200 and wont be changing it anytime soon . You can defo hear the difference in realism . Playing Mike valentine ` chasing the dragon ` audiophile cds is really special , really got a wow moment when that cd playing !!!

 
From this thread, I suppose it's a landslide win for the Puritan PSM156? The Audioquest Niagara equivalent isn't that good right?

Is the Puritan PSM156 currently one of the best sounding power conditioners that's available in the market? What about the Chord Powerhaus M6? Has anyone compared both ideally in your own system?
 
I had the Puritan PSM156 a couple of years ago. Didn't make a jot of difference in my system, hours back and forth trying to discern any difference at all. Absolutely nowt to my ears.

Just using an Audiolab Block 6 now which takes the hum out of my Hegel amp.
 
Thanks for the information. I think this is the first time I'm hearing about the Puritan PSM156 not making any difference in the system. Most who have tried had good impressions.

I'll look at the Audiolab Block 6.
 
ryder said:
Thanks for the information. I think this is the first time I'm hearing about the Puritan PSM156 not making any difference in the system. Most who have tried had good impressions.

I'll look at the Audiolab Block 6.
Click to expand...
Because its depending on your electricity quality ,and the level of your system.
 
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