Drew, either speaker or IC -- I know where you can get some excellent prices on Purist, Siltech, and Transparent. I don't know about AQ or Straightwire.
My systemm's all Purist now, with some Maestro II for the sub, tuner and Nak deck. But I have used CZ Gel, Magnan, SW Virtuoao, MIT to name a few. |
Nsgarch, are you talking speaker wire or interconnect? |
Good as Crescendo is, I can't imagine why for the same money you wouldn't by a Purist Venustas instead. It's ten times the value. |
I swear by it. I'm in the process of selling off all my Audioquest stuff for it. Their top of the line retails for only $1100CAD/pair for 1m Crescendo IIs. An absolute ABSOLUTE STEAL. |
Larryb, I would try the Straight Wire Rhapsody. |
I can't get rid of my $60 Symphony II's - darnit. I just bought my second pair of PAD Musaeus cables ($300 retail) to finish the link between CD player and pre/pro for all Musaeus cabling. After burning them in more than the 100 hours, I still far prefer the Straightwire Symphony II's.
Crap!! The Musaeus does some things better, but overall the Symphony's are more musical and just pleasing sounding. Smooth, sweet with the highs, nice from top to bottom. Each have their strengths, but the cheapo Straightwire is more pleasureful to listen to.
Anyone familiar with the Symphonies? Is there another SW cable higher up in the foodchain that has a similar character but even does it better? |
I like the The Maestro II in my system. It's a lively cable, a little bright sounding but still quite enjoyable. |
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Straight Wire has been around a long time and their products are competitive above their respective proce categories. They are just well made and designed cables that, IMO, have a model to perform as well as needed in any system. Again IMO, the Maestro II and Virtuoso are balanced more towards neutral and accurate, with good to great resolution, balance, speed, etc. I think the Serenade is very smooth with good bass control/extension, but is suited more for less than optimally setup but high performing solid-state systems. |
i really like the serenade and the crescendo... the crescendo is one of my long term favorites ( big bold sound) and the serenade is a fantastic bargain.....
like anytihng system dependant.. |
I have tried 2 straightwire speaker cables and interconnects. The Serenade is a nice cable for the money and very forgiving of system deficiencies. Straightwire Virtuoso is not so forgiving of deficiencies and was harsh when used with a Citation amp and Denon preamp. When I switched to an EAD preamp/amp combination the Virtuoso became one of my favorite cables with strong mid bass charachter and resolution. It was far better then the Serenade when used with the EAD components. I biamp my speakers and prefer Audience AU 24 or Stealth PGS for the treble and the Virtuoso for the mid bass. |
I think the Maestro and Maestro II (very similar except for a thicker outer jacket on the II) are one of the great bargain sleeper cables in audioland, both for ICs and speaker. I used them for years (years, because I couldn't find anything better in their price range.) I have different cables now (although I still run a pair of Maestro ICs to my sub) but they do more things right than any other cable design in their category. I even A-B'd them with the more expensive Virtuoso, both IC and speaker, and the Virtuosos weren't really all that by comparison. |
I don't have much experience with other
cables, but I really like Straight Wire
Crescendo and the less expensive
Serenade. The Maestro II is pretty nice
too. |
I didn't particularly care for the Encore II interconnects, especially when compared to the PS Audio xStream Statements (sale price).
However, what works for me may not work for you. |
I've been using their lower end stuff for years in my midfi type gear (Rotel, B&W Matrix etc) with excellent results for dollars paid. Now that I've moved up to better electronics there are better options out there. But for sub $100 cables for midfi gear, it's a good value. |
I've been using their cables for quite some time aswell.
My search came to a halt upon installing the Crescendo interconnects. |
Ditto, been using their stuff for years also. Well worth the price of admission. |
I've been using their stuff for years. Similar to Wireworld. I think they're pretty good, especialy for the money. |
