smoothing those sibilants...

Pinning or better yet holding your ears back and in reduces sibilance. No joke, try it. Hwy61 is also right on IMO. Having attempted a career as a professional musician I have heard a lot of SSSSS words in live performances that were due to both the artists lack of control and mike etiquette as well as the equipment. To reduce all of the SSSSS sounds would be to not have an acurate portrayal of the source material, again IMO. If the ear trick works it would stand to reason that Joe's recommendation of room treatment would have a "major" impact on sibilance as well (it sure does on everything else). I only wish I were willing to work more with our listening room, though my wife did just give me a nice shroud to hang over a rather large painting that hangs behind the speakers, which makes a big improvement in the mid and HF's. I guess that I am fortunate in that I have never had a problem with this (I also feel that sibilance on occassion is normal) in any of my vinyl based systems and do not experience a problem with it in my current digital system (I also use silver IC's most of the time). Anyway Elizabeth, I am happy that you were able to control it by upgrading your gear, plus you really seem to like the new player. I will be adding a new DAC to my old CAL player shortly, who knows maybe I will get me some of that sibilance along with some added detail.

I agree that many recordings seem to have it, at least as I can tell from listening via headphones. Recordings are many times responsible for the worst evils. I have mistakenly attributted poor sound to other parts of the chain when the problem was the recording --even on recordings that make the Records to Die For in Stereophile !

Having had the chance to audition some different interconnects here in my own casa, I wanted to post an update, and also respond to a couple of other posts. First, I got to try (and am using for reasons financial) some low-end Cardas, which although seemed to have "darkened" the overall sound, did indeed reduce sibilants without sacrificing detail. I also tried a pair of Nordost Blue Heavens, which were good but a bit "zingy" for my taste. Then, the Epiphany! I had the pleasure to listen to a pair of Silver Audio 6.0's, and that did the trick for sure. Wow, smooth, detailed, warm, just the things I was looking for. A pair of these will definitely be the next system upgrade. Now, about some of these posts, I understand that the source that I'm using is not the be-all end-all for "smooth" digital sound, but it is FAR from junk. I have heard some high-dollar digital gear (admittedly not in my own home) that not only didn't sound better, it sounded worse. And at the risk of going off-topic, I at this time cannot see spending huge dollars on a digital source as standards get settled on. The new Sony ES DVD/SACD player looks promising, but what's this, Sony themselves hinting that multi-channel SACD will be at CES next month? There's also a hint on the Perpetual Technologies site that says they may have a Universal player at CES, that's SACD, DVD-A, CD, etc., for about $1500. Also, I completely agree that sibilants change from disc to disc, and unfortunately some otherwise great recordings (one in particular is Alanis Morisette's Former Supposed Infatuation Junkie) are marred by excessive sibilants. Sometimes, it seems, this is just going to be part of the game.