Are the Crimson cables as good as they say

Yes, they are that good. I have one pair balanced IC's between my int. amp and sacd player along with 2 pairs speaker cables for bi-wire setup. One speaker cable was great, but two was wonderful. I bought even though they were a little out of my price range...that good. I was able to try in my system for an extended period free of charge. Contact Creston or Creston Jr., these have to be about the nicest guys in audio, at Austin HIFI in Texas for free in home trial. The cables are so clear. You feel like everything is getting through. More than you thought was possible anywhere near this price range!

I did the Crimson home demo and found that I only liked the speaker cable in my system. I replaced the speaker cable about 10 months ago with DNM and like those better. If possible do the in home demo and make your choice with your own ears in your own system. I agree with Tuffy72561 that the Creston's at Austin Hifi are the men to deal with, they carry both DNM and Crimson.
Good luck....

The Clarus Crimson cables take a LONG time to burn in (20+ hours for the interconnects and 200+ hours for the speaker cables) and this may attribute to what some of these impressions are. See my reviews at http://audiophile-musings.blogspot.com/2013/09/rca-cable-review-clarus-crimson.html

These Crimson threads get confusing because several different cables share the name.

The cable you want is Crimson, not Clarus Crimson. Austin Hifi is the US distributor, and they offer a free trial, I believe 30- or 60-days. I compared them to WyWires, Gabriel Gold, Cardas, and PAD Acqueous Anniversary when I was in the market and thought they were easily the best. (WyWires was a close second). They are exceptionally "clean" sounding. If you want clarity, resolution, and dynamics, they are fantastic and a bargain. If you are looking for tone controls, you probably won't like them.

I also found that I liked Crimson ICs more than their speaker cables. Clear Day Double Shotgun speaker cables were just as good the Crimson speaker cables for higher frequencies, but the Clear Days were better for bass response.