Shunyata Research's Denali 2000T ???

@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.

@jon2020 If you are experiencing blunted transients and loss of speed it isn’t the Denali; rather, it’s something else in your system. The loss of air I believe will depend upon how your tweeters are designed. Noise floor - come on, it’s ridiculously low with the Denali - to say otherwise lacks credibility.

I purchased a 6000/S and after I purchased my D’Agostino M400 monos (which I expected to solve system speed and transients issues given the nasty impedance curve of my speakers) was experiencing all of the symptoms you are describing. For a sanity check, I pulled out the Denali and while the noise floor was higher, all the speed, attack, air and shimmer returned.

So I emailed my dealer just to let him know my experience and that the Denali was coming out of my system. He was really surprised and said that the Denali was one of the few products in his many years in audio that had almost universally positive feedback, particularly with high end systems. He said he’d email Shunyata and let me know. Shunyata couldn’t understand why the Denali was doing that but sent some things to try - one of which is to use the unit as intended (I had been sitting it on its side on two HRS nimbus assemblies due to lack of space - the 6000/T was too wide to fit in the same space due to its spread out feet).

I was planning on doing my biennial system cleaning anyway and stripped the system down completely and temporarily configured the system so that the Denali was used as intended - on its own feet on hard tile over concrete. Turned the system on and WOW were there transients, but the top end still didn’t have the proper air and shimmer.

I know my speakers and they are tipped down in the brilliance region (which generally helps with real world untreated rooms but is the region that produces air and shimmer) so I figured that the Denali was doing something Focal did not expect - delivering very clean power. Thankfully, this was solvable thanks to Focal’s wonderful jumper system - I set the tweeter jumper to high (a +1db boost) and the treble was again airy with the right shimmer.

So all good? Not quite. I started to reassemble the system and as I usually do, placed HRS nimbus assemblies under all components and cable network boxes. UGH! Sluggish again and blunted transients. Hmm... So I started systemically removing the nimbus assemblies, first from the speaker networks and then from the interconnect networks. Transient attack and speed returned to almost where it was before (for the components, the superior top to bottom effect of the nimbus assemblies warranted their remaining despite a shade of lessened transient speed - as far as I can tell this lessening has to do with my preamp not being on an HRS M3 platform (due to space issues) since it was only when placing the nimbus under the pre that there was any minor detrimental effect on transient speed).

Morals of the story for me - use components as intended/the manufacturer knows best, get to know your system (speaker measurements are invaluable although that’s more a result of the good fortune of having a stereophile review which includes measurements) and sometimes you can’t understand what something is doing until you take away other things (even if those things that you take away worked amazingly well earlier).

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. 

Thanks for the post jon2020. Unfortunately I've not heard any of the Triton's.

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.

Regarding the internals of the Denali series, I found these short video’s interesting:

https://youtu.be/Z6f1kwyZbM8
https://youtu.be/m0k417ET7K8

The latest Stereophile has a piece on the Denalis. Says it beats the AQ Niagara line, which had beat out the previous Shunyata line.

I guess you mean the internals of the Anticables power cables (PCs)?  Perhaps you are right.  However, the PCs apparently have some special braiding or arrangement that works well at drawing noise out of components.  I can say that the PCs are detailed and full sounding with great bass.  But if you have dirty power coming out of the wall you will need to clean that up.

The Anticables ICs are intentionally kept very slim without any kind of elaborate or thick wrapping material so as to maximize the benefit of air as dielectric.  Also there is some method to the doubling of each of the left and right cables that is apparently very effective.  The silver and (presumably small amount of) gold in the ICs make them quite expensive to make and high value content-wise but I really haven't tried calculating the impact of that. 

Don't know much more than that.  The cables do sound good though.

All that matters is the final product; the music!
However Ozzy, I do know what you mean. When one looks inside of any product the guts usually don't look like they should add up to the sun total of the product.

agriculturist, thanks for the updates and I'm glad you are enjoying the emprovements!

Lak:Been a while but I finally finished switching over to a full set of Anticables ICs and PCs.  I am very pleased with the results.  The top Anticable ICs were for me clearly better than my SR Tungstens right away when I swapped those in first.  The Anticable PCs had more detail and much more bass but could could sound rough and dull at times.  

First the new PCs produced too much bass for my relatively modest sized listening room and second I needed power conditioning which I had taken out of the system.  The bass needed to be controlled by a combination of techniques.  I had to reorganize my listening configuration, use some more traps and panels etc.  I pulled my speakers in from the wall closer to me along the lines of the room/speaker arrangement suggestions posted online by Cardas.  

And as I mentioned there was also a lot of grunge from the dirty power in my apartment outlets, so I had to bring in some power conditioning - I went the balanced route and sold my SR MarkCell 3.  I now have a pair of used but superb BPT balanced conditioners.  I use the bigger one to power the integrated VAC amp as well as the smaller second BPT in series.  I use the second BPT to power my digital front-end and the SR tranquility bases and FEQs. But at the end of all this reorganization and buying/selling etc I now have magnificent sound.  Into the bargain I have also learned the virtues of Stillpoints ERS paper in BPT power conditioners, around the fuse box in my apartment, and in my Berkeley Alpha USB converter.  

So, yes, I am a big fan of the Anticable products.  I had not realized it was going to be quite so complicated to switch cables, but overall it was fun and an interesting learning experience getting through the changes I had to make.  The sound I get now is far superior than I did before.  I made many tweak type changes that would have benefited my old system too, but I am confident that a very big part of the credit goes to the Anticables products.

Whew, that was a long and overdue response!  Thanks for your advice along the way.

agriculturist, let me know how you like the Anticable products.
Nothing wrong with keeping the SR powercell mk3. :-)

Thanks lak. I'm getting some Anticables power cables along with interconnects in the near future.  After those are burned in etc I may look at new power conditioning - balanced or Shunyata etc - if I need it. I have an SR powercell mk3 now which I quite like so I might stick with that too.

@agriculturist,
That's a very good question.
The short answer is system space constraints and the length of my High Fidelity UR or U power cords. 
My main rack is full and the Denali 2000T fits very nicely in a small space right next to my main rack, while the Q2 is in a different location.
Given more time to experiment, I'll try running the Dac and Transport out of the Denali and my amp, preamp and Phono out of the Q2.
It's all about mixing and match to see what sounds the best.
I've been experimenting with several differet power cords in my second system, and that's where my time has been spent for a while now.

Lak:I have been thinking about balanced power myself.  I am curious why you don't use the Equitech for your amp/preamp but only for your DAC? Did you experiment and conclude that is where it is best used?  Or is that a recommended or a common way to use Equitech Q products.
Thanks

Calloway,
I'm using the 2000T (plugged into one dedicated outlet) on my amp and preamp.
Transport and Dac are plugged into my Equi=Tech Model 20 balanced power conditioner (plugged into a different dedicated line).
Lastly, my Turntable, Phono-preamp, and tuner are plugged into a DeZorel Mk II Powerline Filter (on its own dedicated outlet). 

lak..Thanks..will do..

Hello Calloway,
Thanks for the information.
I did purchase a 2000T and received it a week ago.
I believe you are going to like the 6000S.
Let me know how things go when you receive it.
Best regards...

lak...I have been auditioning the Denali 2000T on my amps and i must say it is a great product. I then hooked up my Lumin A1 to the 2000T and it too, significantly improved. The 2000T only has 2 outlets so i could not hear both amps and Lumin at once. I will be purchasing the '6000S' version next week so i can hook up both amps and Lumin..They have great reviews and a loyal following among those with modest systems and with great systems..