The Shunyata Research Everest 8000 is now on permanent demonstration here at Audio Therapy, along with the Denali, the Alpha A10 and the Venom UK6. The Everest is Shunyata’s flagship power conditioner sitting directly above the Denali in their range.
The Denali is priced at £7595 and the Everest is £10750, plus a power cable to feed them. Neither are inexpensive to be fair, as such they are typically found used in larger systems, but even in a more modest system a Denali can elevate performance to a very high level, easily on par with a significant component upgrade and it’s something that will live in your system forever, it benefits the entire system and it is best thought of as the ultimate foundation or building block to start a system from.
Up until the launch of the Everest, the Denali was Shunyata’s flagship power conditioner and relatively speaking it has been a very popular product. People often raise a sceptical eyebrow at things such as this, but it never takes long listening to one in your system to hear what it brings to the table sonically.
Visually both Denali and Everest are certainly unique with their striking vertical design with fits in with their naming. They stand upright to allow easy management of cabling, stood off to one side of your system as opposed to being in the same equipment rack. Power cabling can take up a lot of space and can be quite unwieldy when in an equipment stand, but being stood off to one side makes life much easier.
Over the years Shunyata have have developed a number of patented innovations and they use a lot of proprietary technology in all of their conditioners and the Denali and the Everest sit right at the top of their technology ladder. As a result of these various innovations they have plenty of quirky sounding acronyms to outline what goes on inside their products!
I’m not going to get too embroiled in the technical aspects in this blog post, just a few short paragraphs below to give a brief overview on a few of their key elements, Shunyata’s website covers it all in extensive depth and is well worth a read
CCI – Component to Component Isolation
Mains power is noisy, which shouldn’t come as a surprise to anyone. In addition to noise on the actual power line, all of the components in a system will create noise themselves. This noise pollutes the power line which will essentially reflects the noise into the other components in the system which restricts/holds back their performance. To address this Shunyata have developed what is called a Component to Component Isolation filter.
In the Denali there are 6 sockets and there is 1 filter per socket, the Everest has 7 sockets and there are 6 filters (2 sockets shared 1 filter), these filters dramatically reduce the noise from the connected component and filters it out rather than allowing it to leak back into the power line and filtering through to the other components in your system. This filters means that each socket/zone is isolated from one another from a noise perspective (apart from the 2 shared sockets on the Everest)
QR/BB Reservoir Technology
There is a module inside the Denali and the the Everest which is called the QR/BB. This module acts like a giant power reservoir, it stores energy and releases it as and when a component requires a burst of instantaneous current (a big dynamic shift in the music for example). A lot of customers feedback that many brands power conditioners compress the dynamics of their system, the QR/BB module allows the Denali and the Everest to deliver current to your system in a much more efficient manner than other power conditioners and wall sockets allow. Even integrated amplifiers or large power amplifiers will benefit from being connected to a Denali or Everest, with no compression at all. The QR/BB module has a US patent on it, in the Everest the QR/BB module is over 3 times larger than the module in the Denali so it can deliver much more current when it is requested.
CopperConn
All of the outlets, contacts and internal metalwork are made from heavy duty solid copper as opposed to copper coated brass or bronze (or silver or rhodium coated brass) which you find in many other designs. The majority of the current is actually carried by the contact’s base-metal and not the coating and solid copper offers much greater conductivity compared to brass or bronze. The whole wiring loom, the outlets and all internal metalwork are designed by Shunyata and are proprietary, nothing is off the shelf.
KPIP – Kinetic Phase Inversion Process
Shunyata puts all of it products through a process which is described as KPIP, this process dramatically reduces burn in time and makes sure a product doesn’t need weeks of constant use to reach its optimum performance, Shunyata keep their cards close to their chest with regard to exactly how it works but you can read more about it here
With all of the above processes and more combined together in one package, adding a Denali doesn’t fundamentally change your system, but it moves your system out of the way and gives you the music and gives you much more of it.
Whatever you plug into the Denali simply sounds better, whether it is a DAC, a CD player or a server/streamer like a Melco, plus obviously all forms of amplification as well (I can hear people saying that amplification should be connected to the wall!). The Denali lowers the noise floor and a result you gain clarity, dynamics increase as does resolution and you get a more 3D holographic soundstage which really enables you to hear into the music, that well trodden cliche of hearing new things in music you know well is very apt.
I have large playlist of music saved for whenever I’m evaluating equipment, it’s an extensive list and it covers most genres of music and it includes bands and artists such as Elbow, Tindersticks, Lyle Lovett, Jon Hopkins, Jimmy Smith, Jon Grant, Nitin Sawhney, Laura Marling, Sharon Robinson, Explosions in the Sky, Leonard Cohen, Rammstein and Max Richter and in every instance the music becomes more immersive, more engaging and simply just more real and enjoyable when the Denali is in play. The Jimmy Smith album ‘Organ Grinder Swing’ is an old recording (1965) and can often sound a bit flat and one dimensional but it’s a superb album nonetheless, but listening to it with the Denali in the system it becomes much cleaner and it has more groove, speed and bounce.
I distinctly remember my first Denali customer demonstration when I first started with Shunyata, the system was a Vitus RI-101 Mk 2 amplifier fitted with the DAC streamer board, a Melco N1ZS and an S100 switch, the speakers were a pair of Avalon PM1. When the system was first powered up with the Denali the customer instantly turned to me and said words to the affect of “what else have you changed? that’s not my hi-fi!” and this sort of feedback has been a bit of constant theme ever since.
Since it’s launch the Denali been incredibly well reviewed by the world’s hi-fi press as well.
When Hi-Fi+ Magazine reviewed the Denali Alan Sircom said……
“The Denali is one of the rare exceptions: you put it in the system, and the system immediately sounds better… job done, open wallet and extract money.”
The Audio Beat said……
“…..I suspect this dynamic prowess is related to the stunning clarity the Denali brings, the music sounding more like itself and less the product of a complex and expensive chain of electronics. With the Denali, listening is like breathing; it’s not something I have to concentrate on — the music just happens.”
To be fair at £7595 not including a cable to power it the Denali isn’t likely to be used in a system worth £5000 or £10,000, which makes total sense, but is a shame in a way as hearing what happens to a system at that level when you introduce a Denali to it can be a bit of revelation……
As an experiment I added a Denali to a system where you wouldn’t ordinarily have one. The system comprised of a Gold Note DS-10 Streaming DAC and it’s dedicated power supply plus a pair of PA-10 power amplifiers running in mono, Roon was the source and the speakers were a small pair of Boenicke W5 – it’s a superb system for the money and one I enjoy spending time in front of, but to put into context, the Denali costs more than all 4 of the Gold Note boxes that are in play, so it may not necessarily be a real world system/combination.
That said, introducing the Denali elevated the Gold Note and Boenicke to a whole new level. It just delivered more of the everything that the system was already doing so well and it showed how much more the system is capable of delivering.
Climbing from Denali to Everest!
Given how strong the Denali performs moving up to the Everest was always going to be interesting, I’ve had more than a handful of customers ask how much better can an Everest really be and I’ll be the first to admit at that moment in time it was a question I was unable to answer and if I’m honest my experience with the Denali had me asking the same question to myself and to Shunyata!
The Everest stands vertically like the Denali, but is physically quite a bit larger, it offers 7 UK sockets as opposed to the Denali’s 6 technically it actually has quite a bit more going on.
A few customers have presumed that an Everest is just a slightly larger Denali but with an additional power socket and on the face on that is true, but appearances can be deceptive!
The QR/BB module in the Everest is over 3 times the size of the one in the Denali, so it provides much greater current delivery when it is required which increases system dynamics and transparency
The CCI filter has been dramatically improved over the one fitted to the Denali which further lowers the noise and there have been upgrades to the internal wiring and also there is a greater volume of copper used internally as well.
The Everest also has 4 ground terminals on the back which are referred to as the GP-NR system, this stands for Ground Plane Noise Reduction, this a proprietary technology developed by Shunyata and if you have a device in your system with a dedicated chassis ground terminal you can connect it to one of the 4 posts on the Everest to potentially improve system performance (even if the device isn’t connected to the Everest itself via a power cable).
If you have no ground terminals on your components you can always connect a cable to a chassis screw and get the same benefit, but I appreciate not everyone will be happy to do that. The 4 connections ensure that all connected devices share the same ground point and reduces AC ground voltage and also minimises ground loop hum and noise. This is a chassis ground system (referred t0 as CGS in Shunyata literature) and is different to Entreq grounding which is signal path based grounding, the CGS is not designed for signal grounding.
If you look on the rear of the Denali you will see that it has a single CGS post, but it doesn’t have the GP-NR module fitted to it.
The Everest also has what is called a Common Mode Filter, many power conditioners use filters which can compress dynamics, Shunyata decided to develop their own filter which reduces high frequency distortion and does not compress the musical signal in any way.
Everest Performance
I’ll be brutally honest and say that the first time I experienced an Everest in a system my initial reaction was to think that there was something wrong with the Denali, the Everest took all of the things that the Denali brought to the table and expanded on them in every way and then some.
The music in an instant became even more articulate, bass lines become deeper, faster, tighter, resolution increased and everything simply became palpable and even more enjoyable. One go to piece of music I always play when testing is the first 2 tracks from ‘Ten New Songs’ by Leonard Cohen and within seconds of the opening track starting (In My Secret Life) you could hear the impact the Everest was making.
The Everest is a magnificent product and is without doubt the very best power conditioner I have ever experienced. Many customers will be in the lucky position where they can simply buy the best and if you fit into these circumstances the Everest is undoubtedly the star of the Shunyata Research show, as Alan Sircom said in his recent review “it makes your system sound better no matter the system and regardless of where you live” although I must stress that it is important to not allow the Everest to overshadow the Denali, which stands on it’s own 4 feet as an incredible product and is a game changer in its own right.
At £7595 the Denali is almost £3200 cheaper than the Everest (which is £10750) so it is at a different price point and to be fair something would be wrong if the Everest didn’t stretch it legs, all I’m trying to saying in a not particularly articulate way is the Denali is a very special product and don’t disregard it because of the strong position the Everest occupies, they are both incredibly special models!
Shunyata also have their other power conditioners, the Alpha A10, Delta D6 and their entry level model the Venom UK 6 – all of which are superb at their respective price points and always go down very well, these will be covered in a future blog post. There will also be a blog post coming on the range of Shunyata XC power cables – these are the cables which are dedicated to use on their power conditioners.
I keep all of the power conditioners and all of the XC power cables from Venom to Sigma on demonstration.
Ultimately, every system out there regardless of its cost and make up has mains noise contained with it, this noise comes from both the power line itself and is generated within the system itself and to some degree it holds back what the system is capable of truly delivering, even a system that already sounds incredible or one that has a 6 figure price tag (or beyond) still has noise which can easily be reduced (or even removed altogether) with some care and attention. Even systems that have dedicated radial power lines and their own consumer units can be dramatically improved.
As ever demonstrations are welcome, as is part exchange if you have a power conditioner you would like to trade in and if you have any questions please don’t hesitate to get in touch
