@stuartk Forgive me if this 'idea' seems too obvious, but you might try to slightly reposition your speakers, sometimes things can dramatically change within radius of few inches. I would say that I own quite transparent speakers (F.Serblin Accordo) and pretty resolving gear (Burmester 036 amp and Burmester 089 player) with silver cables everywhere, but while in process of finding best position for those speakers in my room, I 'menaged' to make them sound very, very different, all depending on toe in and width between them. That is not my first system and not my first 'rodeo' but differences in sound that went from 'warm and rich' to 'almost clinical' were eye (ear) opening, to say at least. Room acoustics are often taken for granted and speaker positioning is cheapest 'tweak', aldo perhaps the most time consuming. To cut long story short, my point is that if I had no patience to 'play' with positioning I could have swap gear (cables first) in vain. If I were in your shoes, I would mark the current position of speakers and would try to move them in very small steps, half inch 'here' or 'there'. It cant hurt and you may discover that changes might be very impactful. Best of luck
How to proceed?
Removing my Aqua La Voce dac from my system has eliminated fatigue and reduced but not fully eliminated sibilance. Running my Jay’s CDT2MKIII into my Hegel H390’s onboard dac is definitely a more relaxed presentation but tonally leaner than I prefer. Some have suggested I swap out the Hegel, but first I’d like to try another dac.
What I’m unclear about is how to go about choosing another dac that will not duplicate the same drawbacks I’ve experienced with the Aqua. Are there details in the design or specs that can guide me in this regard? I'm unsure how to proceed.