Shunyata Research

[GuillaumeB]

I’m assuming it’s some sort of power conditioner? 

It's a type of passive power conditioner; it offers no voltage regulation or mains regeneration and instead improves the power quality through noise suppression, transient impulse protection and an innovative (patented) circuit that improves instantaneous current flow into AC/DC PSUs. The device is quite unique in that it eschews most of the traditional solutions including inductive components (i.e. coils), capacitors, transformers and ferrites all of which have advantages but also corresponding negative effects. For example coils and transformers typically limit instantaneous current leading to a loss of dynamics.

The device includes a number of technologies developed/refined by Caelin Gabriel for medical applications, specifically medical imaging. Here is Shunyata's sister company Clear Image Scientific (CIS), the Denali shares many of the tech with the CIS Model-6:

http://clearimagescientific.com/technology/

So you could say it delivers demonstrable results in environments where it matters, the subjective stuff for hi-fi will always come down to individual tastes and preferences. With that said in pretty much every environment I have placed it in the impact has been quite dramatic.

Cheers,

Guillaume