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.