Straightwire Serenade to Crescendo comparison

If you are refering to IC's. I have not done the Serenade/ Crescendo A-B, but have found some IC's that flat-out smoked the Crescendo's for about the price of the Serenades, maybe a little less. The IC's are made by a company out of NJ called Virtual Image, the Pile Driver 18. If you search the forums here on Audiogon, you can read more detailed posts where I went into the differences between the V.I. cables and the Crescendo's. If I can answer any questions for you about the V.I. cables, feel free to e-mail me.

BTW, V.I. also makes excellent power cables.

I recently upgraded from Serenade to Crescendo ic's and can say that I was very pleased with the results. The Cresendos tend to do everything better, more body and weight, better detail, less congestion. I only compared them to a set of Kimber Selects (KS-1120's) and preferred the Cresendos due to their increased weight over the Kimber's, so I can't comment on other cables. Now I'm not saying that they are twice as good, but don't listen to them if you don't want to spend the money.
I have a Proceed front end feeding a ML 335 amp lashed to B&W's with Straightwire's Black Silk.

I also upgraded from Serenades to Crescendos. The Crescendos eliminate the Serenades colorations (slight emphasis in both the upper bass and upper treble) and improve upon them in every area. The Crescendos are more refined, better detailed, much better in the deep bass and extremely fluid and natural. And all I can say in response to ZSpradlin's post here and elsewhere on this site is that he must be selling the cables he's taunting, because there is no way they can "smoke" the Crescendos. They might be more to his liking in one regard or another, but the Crescendos do nothing wrong that I can hear and so many things so very wonderfully, it is impossible for them to be "smoked". ZSpradlin has some sort of agenda here, I believe, which the moderators of this site should put a stop to. Do not hesitate to upgrade to the Crescendos whenever you can afford to do so.

Daviderow,

As the manufacturer of the Virtual Image cables, I wish to inform you that:

a. We only sell factory direct, thus Zspradlin couldn't possibly be selling our products (perhaps you even noticed him repeatedly suggesting that others contact Virtual Image directly), and

b. Zspradlin is nothing more and nothing less than a very satisfied, enthusiastic Virtual Image customer (just as you are a satisfied, enthusiastic Straightwire customer). He is entitled to his opinions of the products in question, as are you.

One should not accuse another of hidden agendas because of their enthusiasm, nor should one deny himself the possibility that maybe, just maybe, something sounds better than what they are used to. There are customers who have used ours to replace cables whose high cost would make you cringe in horror (at least they make me cringe in horror! :-) ), due to their opinion that VI offered better performance, in spite of their lower cost.

David,
You're right, I do have an agenda here. With my post in this thread, I apparently peaked your interest enough that you went back and read SOME of my previous posts about the Virtual Image cables. Had you taken the time to look through my full history of posts, you would see that like you I was an avid fan of the Crescendo's for quiet some time, I even found the Crescendo's to out perform the highly acclaimed Audience Au24's. You would also notice that more than once I stated that the V.I. Pile Driver 18's give superior performance at a fraction of the cost of the Crescendo's. Have you figured out my "agenda" yet??? Higher level of performance... Less money... Any light bulbs coming on yet??? If not, I'll try to explain it to you in simple english: to try to help the members of Audiogon get the most for their hard earned money. That's as simply as I can put it.

As for you you saying that "there is no way that the Virtual Image cables could smoke the Crescendo's", that is nothing short of pure narrow-mindedness on your part... Have you tried Virtual Image's cables??? My personal guess would be that you have not. So, I challenge you ( a clang is heard as the gauntlet hits the floor ) to e-mail Al at Virtual Image a try his cables. If you give me an honest A-B comparison between the Crescendo's and the V.I. Pile Driver 18 cables, I'm confident that you'll be selling the Crescendo's. Al also offers a 30 day money back policy, what have you got to lose, other than having to face the fact that there just might be something better than the Crescendo's out there.

As Al, owner of Virtual Image, put it in his reply to you I am nothing more than one extremely happy customer. I get no form of compensation what so ever if Al sells a pair of interconnects or a power cable because someone read one of my posts here on Audiogon and decided to try one of his products. With Virtual Image you get an outstanding product at an awesome price with excellent customer service, what's not to get excited about...

To Mikesinger:
The Straightwire Crescendo's are a very respectable cable. The Crescendo's do alot of things right, but there are alot of areas where the Crescendo's are really lacking. When I was doing my A-B between the Crescendo's and the V.I. cables, I found the V.I. cables to have a better soundstage, more realistic spatial orientation around the various instruments, and over-all better dynamics. One particular track that I like to use, the Pile Driver 18 cables brought out details in the recording that the Crescendo's missed completely. As I mentioned in my response to David, you can get NEW Virtual Image cables for about 1/2 of the price of a used pair of Crescendo's. And with buying new cables from Virtual Image, you are able to take advantage of the 30 day in home trial. As I also stated earlier, I have no ties to Virtual Image, I am just a very happy customer and I have stated this in some of my other posts here Audiogon as well.

BTW, I really do have a "hidden agenda", through my posts about the Virtual Image cables here on Audiogon, Al over at Virtual Image is going to corner the interconnect market and through that I will learn the true identity of "Deepthroat". Hey, it could happen.....

What gets really old is Zspradlin answering questions like ``which is better x or y?'' with the answer ``neither, Virtual Image!'' I must say that for someone with no vested interest in Virtual Image, Zspradlin sure does plug this product endlessly.

P.S. I use Crescendo IC's and find them to be extremely musical and satisfying.

Like I stated in my previous post, it is an outstanding product at a great price. I used to recommend the Crescendo's just as much, but I found something that is better and cheaper, so why not tell people about it. My speaker cables are Kimber Select 3035's, but just about everyone knows of these cables and of them being one of the best cables on the market. If at some point someone told me that there is a better cable out there at 1/3 the price, that would peak my interest enough to make me want to try them. I also put in most of my posts that V.I. offers a 30 day money back trial, what have people really got to lose by trying V.I.'s cables.

What? You mean that V.I. doesn't make a speaker cable? ;-)

That is one of the things that I asked Al, owner of V.I. about and he told me that he was still working on prototypes at this time.