What in the world is going on.....

Paul Simon recordings "sound crap"? Really, go listen to the "Graceland" CD or vinyl, and tell me it sounds "crap." You may need a hearing check. And for the comment about the new album being recorded "loud," makes me think about a car that is too fast. Your preamp has a volume control for the same reason a car has an accelerator. I’m not a rabid Paul Simon fan but his works are some of the favorites in my collection, all the way back to his collaborations with Art Garfunkel. Lighten up!

this indeed a common problem. We invest a lot in our systems and it is disappointing when our some of our favorite music doesn’t sound so good on our high end systems. Heck, the music coming from my cable box music channels sounds consistently good compared to my media player /highend DAC. I don’t know if the stuff on the music channel is equalized a certain way or what, but it consistently sounds warm, spacious, alive, and extended. Whereas some of the recordings through my expensive media player/DAC is inconsistent, some recordings are just bright/hard. Just the way it is.

I think my posting is irrelevant here but I too had a system close if not more in dollars to yours..I found the more I spent the less I enjoyed listening.Only a small fraction of my music library sounded "worth listening to"..Finially I figured out this was ridiculous, I dumped everything except my source,bought a modest system and listen to music a lot..The bad recorded/produced stuff sounds good to great as does  the well recorded..maybe try getting back to basics,lol

you may be on to something missioncoonery.   

The issue is not with my volume control. The problem is what happens when you send too hot a signal to the cutter head, which, IME caused the minor sibilance issues. This could have been avoided with more care. It is not terrible but it is there. And, once you hear it, there is no avoiding it.