Without wishing to sound like a cantankerous old bugger, I personally don't like Denis Wick mutes! If it wasn't for the fact that my entire band uses them, i certainly wouldn't. I find they lack colour, and character. The Denis Wick straight is adequate, but the Denis Wick harmon is awful. I find that with mutes you sometimes need to vary the type of a mute depending upon the musical demands. For example, the piece my band is playing at the moment has muted lyrical passages in it. We have decided to abandon the wick straight mutes and use stone lined straight mutes. So to finally answer your question i don't think "better" is necessarily the answer, but different mutes for different musical situations.
