Shunyata Research's Denali 2000T ???

Triton v1 vs Denali 6000T

I have had the Triton v1 in my system for several years now and have been considering an upgrade to either the Denali 6000 or the Triton v3. I brought a demo Denali 6000T home this week from my friendly local dealer to first compare it with my trusty Triton v1.

Upon replacing the v1 with the 6000T, the first thing I noticed was that the 6000T sounded louder and this gave me the initial impression of more dynamics, more "meat to the bones" and a bigger soundstage. I had to dial the volume down by 3 clicks from the usual.

As I spent more time with the 6000T, I began to notice a smoothing effect, with less edge to trumpets, less airy highs, a blunting of transients and a slowing of overall speed. I reinserted the Triton v1 and lo and behold....every negative that I have heard with the 6000T simply vanished, returning music to all its full glory. Also, the noise floor of the 6000T is higher than the v1’s, negating my initial impressions above of more dynamics, more meat to the bones and bigger soundstage. The v1 actually allowed me to turn up the volume without any negative effect - providing more detail, clarity and fleshing out of instruments in an actually much larger soundstage.

The lesson I learn here is that one can easily get seduced by a new different sound which need not necessarily be better. You need to simply reinsert the previous component in the system before drawing any final conclusions about the new one.

If anyone is in the market for a Shunyata power conditioner, just grab any used v1 or v2 that you can find. If you already own a v1, the upgrade path should be towards the v2 or v3.

I would advise against getting the Denali 6000T without first comparing to the v1 in a home audition. Yes, the original v1 is that good and indeed gives up nothing at all to the Denali 6000T.

Just my humble opinion....Cheers!
J.

Hi lak,

I am sure you are enjoying the Denalis now because they certainly do sound good on their own.
My message is more to those who already own a Triton v1/v2 and who may have read reviews extolling the virtues of the Denali over the v1/v2, and like myself, are considering upgrading to the Denalis. 
If you do catch the upgrade bug one day and a used Triton v1/v2 happens to come your way, simply give it a listen at home as a comparison to the Denalis. You may just be amazed, like myself, as to how good the v1 can be. :)

Happy listening. J. 

@bar81,

Thanks for sharing your experience with the Denali 6000. They certainly do sound good on their own and I am wondering what you were using before the Denali 6000.

For my setup, I just kept everything the same as before with only the Denali or Triton substituted throughout the comparison.
With my very much familiarised system which has been rather constant over the past 2 years or so, I had all the transients, air, shimmer, rhythm and pace, bass, midrange and tone just right.

Once the Denali replaced the Triton v1, the gestalt sounded blunted, slower, less airy, thicker or congealed with less separation of instruments and murkier soundstage. The Denali’s noise floor was indeed higher than the Triton in between tracks and during quiter passages which can be heard, and as evidenced also by its higher overall volume.

The Denali sat on a well-isolated platform on top of footers as was the Triton. From this, I can’t say that any of the other components were missing anything before the Denali was inserted into the chain. Switching back to the Triton restored every drawback heard with the Denali.

I guess this is what it is for my system and I just can’t bear to part with the Triton v1 for some time yet. :)

J.