Cable Upgrade from SW Virtuoso


I would like feedback from anyone who might have done a comparison or can comment on the Straight Wire Crescendo and the high-end Cardas interconnects/speaker cable. I current am running Sratight Wire Virtuoso interconnects as well as speaker cable. I wish to upgrade to either the Crescendo or Cardas. Any recommendations would be appreciated. Also are there any sites where you can get a demo of these wires ? My current system is Music Reference RM-9 MKII Amplifier with Audio Research SP9 MK III PreAmp and JM Lab Mezzo Utopia speakers..
charleston
i onced owned a music ref. mk II and loved it, that's before UPS played full court with it. i also had SW virtuoso. i tried lots of cables and intercons. if you can afford it the cresendo is a great choice as is the nordost SPM.even the nordost blue heaven will sound great. however the red dawn will lose all that you bought tubes for. it's dry and sometimes harsh, without the warm and fuzzy of tubes. if you can, try before you buy. best of luck good luck.
I demoed Virtuoso speaker cable from the Cable Company, but I doubt they have Crescendo in stock for demo. You could call or e-mail them, though. I've compared Cardas Neutral Reference interconnect with MIT 330 Shotgun (with my tube headphone amp), and the MIT was better. It was also better with my CD player and Krell power amplifier. The Cardas had a good presentation of "transient attack", natural and unexagerrated. But it was VERY forward in the upper mids, and not as dynamic in any of the range. These aspects were the same whether with Sennheiser headphones, or with Maggies or Paragon speakers, in two different rooms.
I'm now using a full complement of a new cable line that's offered Internet-direct with a money-back return policy. If you're like me (whole system Stereophile Class A), you won't dream of returning them. They compete with cables costing two to three times as much, and, at the top of the line, with any cables at any price. Or so I firmly believe. If this interests you, please get in touch.