recommendation for speaker wire to soften the highs if possible

d2girls, cable has inductance, capacitance, and resistance. These are the 3 qualities used in electrical filters, it's what speaker crossovers use to separate frequencies, so unfortunately cables are very capable of distorting sound. That's why I use Duelund exclusively for interconnects. Western Electric used to be AT&Ts sole source for cables, and when wires were necessary for telephone communications people spoke to and fully understood each other from coast to cost using Western Electric (W.E.) designed cables, and Duelund has slightly improved upon it, likely due to improvements in the purity of the metals used, but regardless, they are the most neutral cables I have found. For speakers I am using W.E. because it's less expensive, and while I haven't A/B'd them yet, I have used Goertz for decades, nothing other than W.E. has been listenable. Mind you I have crazy revealing equipment and I run a full range driver, so what comes out of my amplifier does not go through a crossover, and it's amazing how much of a difference that makes! I have reworked many crossovers using V-Caps to by-pass larger caps, and replacing crappy resistors with Mills non-inductive wire wound resistors, but regardless how good the components are, you are still filtering the sound and trying to match drivers. Nothing beats a good full range driver IMO. Frankly Don Sachs talked me into trying it, he made my preamp so I knew that he knows what is what where sound is concerned. Before I bought the preamp we spoke extensively about component quality and such because I wanted to be sure that I wasn't going to regret buying his DS2 preamp... Anyway, cables absolutely impact the sound, though if your equipment is sufficiently colored, it's possible to mask that, at least to some extent. The more neutral your gear, the more obvious the differences between colored and neutral components.

Geoffkait, good point. That's another reason I like Goertz speaker cables. Square wave response is a solid indicator of a component's ability to deal with transients, quick sharp sounds, such as cymbals. Western Electric cables and Goertz speaker cables were both designed by electrical engineers. This page shows the difference between Goertz and more normal cables to a square wave.

http://www.bridgeportmagnetics.com/contents/en-us/d62_MI_AG_Speaker_Cables.html

Goertz cables were one of the first to recognize the importance of wire directionality. I had Goertz interconnects many eons ago.

And you’re right. Cables are filters not gafilte fish. 🐠

I see. I still stand by that if you’re hearing harsh and shrill top end from your speakers, it’s a room issue, most likely the first point reflection.

i feel that using cables to tune the sound is a flawed way to approach tailoring your system. This is just my opinion. I’m not trying to say cables are not important 

I have about half a dozen speaker cables and every one of them sounds different. It’s just the nature of cables. A designer is going for what he/she thinks sounds best or can sound best for a variety of different systems.

Since we all hear differently and our preferences are skewed all over the map, it’s impossible to build the perfect cable. All of mine measure fine and reviewers all like them but they all sound different so it’s not a flawed approach to try them, compare the differences, and settle on the best one for a particular system.

I listen in the near field so my first point of reflection are my head and ears. I have the resolution of headphones without the drawbacks. It’s incredibly apparent that cables and even tweaks can have a profound effect on what I hear. Most times it’s closer to subtle but when the differences are summed, the results are not subtle.

All the best,
Nonoise