Cures for Vocal Sibilance?

In thinking about this a little more, adding to above post. Since you only now hear the sibilance with original setup, and not previously. This could also point to either change in your perception, Jay's only excited what was always there, just that you're now sensitized to it. Or perhaps some component in Hegel or speaker has coincidently failed. I'd suggest a failing capacitor in speaker crossover, if you have electrolytics in there a long time this could cause this sudden issue, more unlikely with film caps, perhaps a tweeter starting to fail, any problem would definitely be in tweeter or tweeter circuit.  I'd much more suspect speaker issue vs. Hegel issue. The electrical issue would only be the issue if sudden sensitivity to what has always been there is case.

Not surprising,  as we get older ear issues may become problematic, many here complain of tinnitus.

Unless you have a faulty unit that transport is not the problem, far too many positive reviews. Likely you've uncovered issues somewhere else in system.

When added resolution uncovers warts, it is unwise to try to cover them up. Rather find the culprit and/or weak link and improve system here. Silver ic's should not alone cause this sibilance issue, they too are uncovering an issue elsewhere. There have been times in the past with different systems where I couldn't stand any silver. Over time I've learned how to balance different metals to provide most natural sound. Many good suggestions above, it will take some work on your part to determine culprit. Per another suggestion above, some amount of sibilance on certain recordings is normal, and your system should reproduce it accurately. Trying to warm your system over will send you in another unwanted direction. Again, that Jay's is good cd transport, seen too many good reviews from reviewers I trust to assign blame to it.

I'm not going to say no recordings have excessive sibilance, but I'm at point where this is extremely rare. Having to weed out mediocre recordings points to system issues, poor recordings will always sound poor, but these should be in relatively small minority. I have 3500+ albums, 2500+cd's and streams that go on for years, very few have bothersome sibilance issue. The reason vast majority of poor recordings sound poor is because of excessive compression, not very often tonal anomalies ruin a recording. Even close miked spitty vocals sound natural in their own way, this does not excite a small frequency spectrum as sibilance points to.

You note in other thread you NOW hear sibilance with original setup, this points to some of the culprits others list above. Component isolation doesn't seem to be a factor, you have mentioned some silver in system, yes, that could be culprit although it seems you've replaced with copper, at least with some cables. As I mentioned in post on other thread, Rhodium could be issue, although glare is usually the issue with that metal. At this point, AC quality really stands out as possible issue, you mention you tried PS Audio. Really treating AC means everything from breakers on, dedicated circuits, quality cables and outlets, likely good conditioner for front end components.

Again, there is nothing wrong with the individual components in your system, all well documented as quality components. You'll just be going around in circles changing out the components. You have something more fundamental in the feeding of these components going on.

This is all very difficult issue to settle without being in your room and hearing the problem. Every single possible solution presented here could be helpful, but we're all shooting rubber bands. The thing is, sibilance is a very narrow freq. anomaly, most of these suggestions more wide band effects, the reason I narrowed down to tweeter issues. Place your ears very close to tweeters during music with the sibilance, listen for any differences between tweeters, if differences tweeter or tweeter circuit is issue. Still could be possible part failure in any of your components based on the fact you NOW hear this issue with all configurations.

Over sensitivity to this part of freq spectrum since first hearing it remains a consideration. The only way you'll know this for sure is time. I had this very thing happen to me once with a former system. I had enjoyed this system for months without issues, when suddenly one day I heard a semblance of overly resonant bass. I could never NOT hear this during subsequent listening sessions. This became entirely annoying, seemingly worse with time, to the point where I had to make wholesale changes in order to alleviate issue. I remain extremely sensitive to what is commonly called one note bass to this day, articulate bass is absolutely necessary to me. Not saying this will happen to you, and I don't see inherent issue with your entire system, only goes to show how our minds can play with our estimations or perceptions of sound quality.

Obviously something is changing, and its changing at high rate. So, now either highly sensitized and obsessing, or you got it right, part failing. You really need to get another observer/listener in your room, at least that should help in determining if sibilance is as bad as you say it is. If its really as bad as you say, you need to get amp and/or speakers checked out immediately. If this is part failing, more damage may be caused by continuing to use. You could also take your amp and maybe speakers to a dealer or another audiophiles house to assess situation.

yep, wax can certainly contribute to these issues. I never paid attention until some years ago when I started losing my balance, trip to the doctor, tons of wax out the ear! Since then I'm mindful of both a bit of tinnitus and losing some of the high freq when listening to music, clean the ears at maximum every two months. I have to wear earplugs when riding my motorcycle, and I like them for sleeping, noisy mornings around here. Certainly packs the wax in, but riding with them in during bike riding is a must. I know many people who've never ridden with earplugs, claim they need to hear traffic. I don't know about that with all the wind noise and some of these ultra loud bikes. I'm glad I've always used them in over 30 years of riding, wasn't so smart with the concerts back in the day, however!