Sonorous and musical performer
Complex cable existing of various conductors, thick and thin. In use thankfully still quite flexible. Different from the modern norm this is a highly characterful cable. I’d place it in the same camp as the Cardas Hexlink Golden 5C. Like the latter, the Crescendo II sounds sonorous, full and confident, with highly lifelike timbre. It’s a cable that makes live recordings really sound live. It may not have the transparency of the best cables I hear but makes up for this by just sounding right, it makes you remove your thinking hat and just enjoy the music. The Crescendo II works especially well in systems that need some extra body or tonal color, such as my own setup with Apogee Diva magnetostatic speakers. Like the aforementioned Cardas, this Straight Wire sort of represents the sound as I came to like it in the 90’s, when Krell, Levinson, Wadia et all were popular and although the use of this cable is certainly not restricted to this, I find that it works very synergistically with equipment of that time. If my Wadia and Levinson source components were not already served with Cardas and Transparent respectively, this Straight Wire cable would be high on my list.
Hi Christiaan,
in these years I read a lot of your reviews, very helpful, really. My system: B&W 805S with Audio Analogue Maestro trio (Maestro CD 24-192, Maestro pre and power amps mono, all wired all with Straight Wire Crescendo I cables). Do You think that the Straight Wire Crescendo interconnects are yet a top cable? Are the Crescendo the right cable for who is in search of a big and bold sound?
I tried recently a Wireworld Eclipse 8 rca (but these cables are dry, cold, with lean bass frequencies) and an Audioquest Cheetah (much better, sound, more balanced, less hi-fi than Wireworld). But Crescendo are in an other league IMHO. What interconnects can You advice for me? (price range max 2000 euro for 1 meter cable) Best regards.
Well, the Crescendos are nice cables for sure, but not the best you can get in terms of transparency, articulation, resolution, etc. I feel that they sound very full and robust, and to some extent they are smooth, but they are not particularly liquid or fluid. Some may consider them on the dry or rough side. I’ve always found Wireworld to sound quite fluid and to my ears not clinical at all, although I have only heard older models. If you feel that Eclipse is dry and cold, I think you’re better off finding other, rather warm, relaxed, and smooth sounding cables. Please check the cables section of my reviews for potential recommendations.