recommendation for speaker wire to soften the highs if possible

Perhaps you are expecting more than the 610’s are meant to deliver.  I often find myself increasing volume in an attempt to make my smaller speakers sound as immersive as my floor-standers.  Before long, the soft dome tweeters start sounding stressed.    The Ryans’ felt pad tweeter surround suggests to me that the tweeter section may already be working against its physical limitations.  There is a reason some designers are moving toward lighter, faster metal domes (listen to berrylium), and AMT planars.
Don’t laugh.  Try a sub.  It amazes me that just a little additional bottom end can tame perceived tweeter harshness.  
Caution: Make sure you visually hide/disguise the sw as much as you can before your spouse sees it. Use your imagination to make it more acceptable (a flower stand or sculpture base).  At least throw a tablecloth over it to let the sound work its magic unseen
Good Luck, and call the folks at Ryan.

I've said all along that it is likely an equipment issue. I had a similar issue with my DAC, and cleared it up with a reasonably priced hospital grade isolation transformer, that and Deulund cables, which are just good neutral cables, should be under $300 or so, and in many system would cost far less that trying new gear. YMMV

I am not saying that Duelund Wire lowers the presence range by any amount of dB.  I am saying it changes the tone and presentation so the upper mids and highs are more natural and real sounding. Less Hifi, electronic and forced sounding. No band aid here, just part of putting together a complete system that sounds right.  

So basically, if you’re to believe these people, they are claiming that their cables are lowering the 2-5khz range by a few dB.

People mistake frequency response for time and phase errors. When rooms interact with time and phase errors it is entirely possible to have large perceived differences in the 2-5kHz range.

Western Electric made cable for balanced circuits with extremely limited bandwidth. It was often difficult to understand a well know acquaintance until one had ’learned’ their voice over the telephone.

Cables are no more a Band-Aid than an amplifier. It is possible to take the best of everything and make two systems, one of which will rip your face off and the other will put you to sleep. Put the systems in different rooms and both could be great.

For the googlth time, specific product recommendations in fora like these are not worth the bits to transmit them.

Granny’s Duelund cables are the bomb!

Tinned, stranded copper wire in cotton sounds quite different from solid core silver plated copper wire in Teflon.  Yes, wire and cabling do change the sound of a system independent of technical reasons.  Materials matter as they influence sound.  

@gunmetalzin,

You didn’t mention whether the Ryan speakers are the R610 or the S610. But at least in the case of the S610 this figure apparently depicts the frequency response of the speaker under typical in-room conditions, for rooms in which a relatively small speaker such as that would be used.

Given the modest downward tilt of that response, and given also the speaker’s 8 ohm nominal/6 ohm minimum impedance (which, everything else being equal, will tend to lessen sensitivity to speaker cable differences compared to speakers having lower impedances), and given also the room characteristics you stated in your 10-30-2018 post, my guess is that the root cause of the issue is upstream of the speaker cables. Erik_Squires and Sleepwalker65 have made good suggestions which could help to confirm that. And perhaps the experiments you indicated in that post that you intended to do have helped in that regard as well.

I don’t think you’ve mentioned what you are using to stream Tidal into the DAC. If it is a laptop computer one thing I would certainly try, if you already haven’t, is running it with its battery, and unplugging its AC adapter from the outlet. And if it is a desktop computer I would turn it off, unplug it from the AC, and try using some other source, such as the digital output of a CD player. I’m envisioning that either the computer or its AC adapter may be introducing noise that finds its way into the DAC circuitry, either directly through the connection between the computer and the DAC, or via the power wiring, or as a result of a ground loop. In turn resulting in timing jitter at the point of D/A conversion (which could certainly be consistent with harshness in the highs), and/or intermodulation or other effects on analog circuitry.

IME having an AC-powered computer connected to an audio system can often be bad news. In any event, though, as several others have indicated it would be preferable to determine the root cause of the problem, rather than band-aiding or compensating for it.

Good luck. Regards,
-- Al

Nonoise, 

"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."

True, that's why I like the cables engineers made in order to minimize such issues. 

I’ve got years of experience, and in the abstract they suggest that the room may be a contributing cause, but cables are the primary cause. 

d2girls, IME, usually it's an equipment issue, but I concurr 100% about cables not being an answer. At best they are a bandaid.

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

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 

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. 🐠

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

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.

Cables can lack bass, exhibit midrange suckout and/or lack sparkle and air and/or other frequency related anomalies. I attribute that to cables affecting the frequency response. I readily admit I haven’t checked cables with an oscilloscope. Is that wrong?

Personally, I don’t believe a cable can effect the frequency response of a system, nor act like tone controls.

When someone describes a cable as “taming the high end” to me it seems like he’s describing a room interaction problem with the speakers, a speaker shouldn’t naturally sound shrill unless it’s badly designed or is having some serious first point reflection issues.

So basically, if you’re to believe these people, they are claiming that their cables are lowering the 2-5khz range by a few dB.

I’m not a electrical or sound engineer or a scientist of any kind, but that just doesn’t seem logical or scientific to me. 

Some are actually true and helpful. Hard to weed through it all. 

You might try a overpriced  power conditioner that helped for me 

I certainly agree about Cardas, I tried that for my DAC before switching over to the isolation transformer. It was an improvement, but it was a bandaid not a fix.

I reccomend Cardas,they do a great job of warming up a system and subtly rolling of highs. I dont recommend them for tube equipment though.

@nasaman  I can start a dissertation on how to use LTSpice to run simulation on how an LC filter strapped in parallel to an LCR load (speaker) will work to roll off high frequencies at which point by how much of a slope, or I can just suggest with about $10 investment you can get some caps from parts express and a few pairs of resistors, one can try them out for a binary search to get where one wants in terms of taming the harshness of the tweeter.  The simplified guide is:  The higher the value of the cap the earlier it will roll off, the lower the value of the resistor the steeper the roll off curve is.  I know it is never as satisfying or confidence-building as spending thousands on cotton wrapped oil impregnated cables with a mystery box, but it does save some time.  https://www.electrocube.com/resistor-capacitor-networks

Look, I have spent a ton of money on cables, so let me explain something. If you find a boutique brand of cable that sounds better than Western Electric/Delund, or Goertz (Goertz for speakers only), you are masking other issues. Goertz, if you don't use their zobels, can introduce problems, but if your running a monster amp, it's a go to. Basically those are neutral, and if you shoot for neutral throught your system, you'll immediately spot problems. If OTOH, Review X says product W is it, but it's really colored, but offset issues with the reviewer's (fill in the blank), your going to be trying to cure an issue which could be multiple issues. Since product W fixed the reviewer's issue, it may exacerbate a problem with your system and add problems of it's own. That's why, though it has taken decades to actually get to where I am content with my system, I finally gave up trying for synergy and went instead for neutrality in everything. It requires a sound basis, and then using the most neutral components, a lot of Teflon caps, lots of really good resistors, etc. Fortunately it doesn't mean thousand dollars worth of ICs and speaker cables! Save yourself a LOT of money, and a LOT of headaches, and do as many here have said, Western Electric or Delund's slightly improved version if you are not running lots of current, and Goertz 11 gage copper cable if you want to go the high power route. If it's not the cables, and you are sure it's not your equipment, try isolation transformers, my DAC was ear bleeding bright until I got a hospital grade isolation transformer. If that doesn't do it, call Don Sachs, he's more up on newer gear than am I, he can advise you as to what is the probable source, or you could just call him in the first place and perhaps save both time and money in the long run, not to mention frustration!

Although your problem could be related to speakers, room, or source equipment (I don't think it's the Monster cables), my recommendation to your original question is Acoustic Zen Satori speaker cables, and used Cardas Golden Cross interconnect. The AZ Matrix Reference II interconnect could also be a good option.

I agree w shkong. The reason is most noise in any system come from noise on the ac power, whether from wall power or your components. You obviously get enjoyment/value from music.  Bite the bullet now If you invest in a “balanced power” ac power product like an Equitech you give yourself a lifetime investment in better sound quality. Start shopping for used now and start saving! And read info on Equitech website. Knowledge is (ac) Power - pardon the pun ;(

Western Electric would never have made that cable if they'd had today's technology.

 Eddie,  Would a CD player sound the same?  With the highs 
 Sound like you listen to rock recordings.   To me 
 %92 rock recording engineers have tin ears
 Did you get any backtalk
With the Monster wire 
  Put something nice under that amp  like a decoupled footer. 3 of them. 
Let's get that right  

I would try single wiring them. Going to the bass/mid first then jumping to the tweeter. Once there you can play with the jumpers to the highs, using standard lamp cord or simply try a number of different wires available at a good hardware store. 

I think this will tell you if you need different speaker cables.

I think that you have 3 good choices. 1. Delund's Western Electric style cable. 2. Western Electric cable, there are lots of fakes now, this is a good source for the real thing;

https://www.m.ebay.com/sch/i.html?sid=tajacobs&isRefine=true&_pgn=1

3. Goertz speaker cables, but you MUST get the zobels to connect to your speakers. Their almost purely capacitive so they can make many amps oscillate without the zobels, but being almost purely capacitive they have far less effect on the sound.

The problem is that all these are really neutral cables. Brightness, if we assume that your gear isn't just bright, will only get better if your cables are the cause. You can also buy or make deulund interconnects. Deulund has copied and have arguably bettered the old Western Electric cable, but if you don't have high efficiency speakers 91db or  better efficiency, you can get 10 gage W.E. cable from the above source, or use Goertz. Back to if it's not your gear, or your cables, it could be a power issue. As a technician I always believed that with a reasonable power supply that noise on AC lined shouldn't be a problem, until I had a problem myself. I spent several thousand on ICs trying to fix it, but what did fix it were isolation transformers, one hospital grade for low current devices and one for my amplifier. Going to better ICs and speaker cables will increase enjoyment anyway, so it can't hurt, though it can make issues more obvious. If you decide to go to tubes the best bang for the bucks, IME will be Roy Muttram for reasonably good sound, his kits built by him or you are very solid, but Don Sachs has taken them and using the best components really maxed out very well designed gear. Roy says he can do the same, but he just isn't anal enough about tweaking. He's a great designer, so it just depends, if a little less than the best, 80 to 85 percent of the way there, for as good as it gets, the equal of 20K or better gear for just under 6K, Don Sachs is the guy. Don is beyond generous with his insight as far as matching his gear to other gear, and he'll make you Delund cables for your gear if you are purchasing from him at a good price. Obviously I make my own, but it was Don and one of his customers that talked me into it. I have Don's DS2 preamp, and Roy's ST80 amp, but I am upgrading it, I should have just bought Don's amp, I never designed tube gear, worked on tube cameras decades ago, but I have made expensive mistakes, just buying the amp Don has designed would have saved me not just time, but money too. YMMV.

Hi, I made my own cables simple easy alittle time. Ordered from Blue jean wires, 25ft 12 awg, OFC Copper gives sound a softer note IMO to my ears. Silver is higher pitch, harsher to the ear, brighter. Imo to my ears. Your equiptment SS or tubes, i hear tubes soften the sound, type of speakers, room materials. Rug v wood floors. 
I have Yamaha RV A 3050. Maybe soon i will get a tube amp, but for now it sound just right for me. Hope this helps.

I’m telling you, contact Grannyring. 

Ok. So I just looked up on Duelund wire 12awg from PartConnexion.com and it’s $19.95/meter for a single wire which translates $159.60 for a pair of speakers in 2 meter long?
Isn’t that too much for a bare wire without shielding?

I just corrected nasty, harsh tweeter highs/fatigue. 
A friend brought over some Dueland wires and they did the trick. 
Myself and a group of serious audiophiles tried all the things suggested in this thread. 
I was to the point of breaking out the ice picks and sticking them in my ears...
Just  saying, you might seriously consider the Grannying option. It shouldn’t be too expensive and you may not need anything more. ( I don’t know Grannying, I’ve never had contact with that person). 
I’m with you. Most likely the Monster cables are the problem. 
Good luck. Keep us posted. 

@johnsonwu do you know specific size and voltage for the cap (and resistor)?

Audio Note LX interconnects are worth considering to address your issue 

Strap a 4 ohm resistor and a 0.33uf cap wired in series across the speaker terminal/binding posts. 
That creates a very crude low pass that rolls off highs.  Let your ears be the judge.   Cost you $2 or so.  Better than buying $500 snake oil.  

For the googlth time, systems in a room as individual as a fingerprint.

Blanket recommendations are not worth the bits to transmit them.

See http://ielogical.com/Audio/CableSnakeOil.php for examples of how the same cable reacts with just amplifier and loudspeaker XO order.

When one adds in low level interconnect, all electronic and room colorations buying a component on recommendation is odds worse than craps.

I think he is winding us up. 

Richard Gray ruined the sound of my system.....quickly removed them.

. Richard Gray power conditioners are warm and will soften up the highs. Model 400 are below $300 on eBay.
. Vintage MIT MH-750 Plus speaker cables (white color) on eBay for around $300 are (very) polite, low white noise and really soften up the highs.
. Vintage Goertz speaker cables can drastically cut off (some) the highs completely.
*** Speaker cables will/may change characteristic of your system a lot so I’d suggest Richard Gray power conditioner. It mated very well with My Belles 150 Hotshot years ago. I then moved on up to Dave’s Reference a150 v2 and couldn’t be happier.

Could it be the tweeter and how you perceive hf sound?. Did you try a different speaker?.

How about acoustic panels behind the speakers? Experiment first with blankets/ pillows to see if they make a diff.
Check out GIK Acoustics, they make beautiful "art panels"

Thanks for all the great advice. I do have carpet in the room and my monster cables are Powerline plus 3. I also have my amp and oppo plugged into panamax MR4300.My speakers are 8 feet apart and on stands at 26 inch. They are about a foot away from the wall. I have furniture in the room as well. The room and my wife :) limit an ideal setup. it sounds like this weekend I should move things around to see if it makes a difference. If it does not make a big difference I think these are the suggestions if I’m reading correctly.

1. .Replace wires with Dueland wires, or Signalcable or supra wires.
2. .Replace interconnect cables.
3. . Have Grannyring’s build some wires
4. . Down the road add a pre amp (schiit or other tube)
5. . * Ask local dealer to loan out and try cables. I like this option and I like the local dealer but price differs greatly.

Thanks again for all the help

Get Granny to make a Dueland set and jumpers. You will not regret it!

I agree that Dueland cable might tame the harshness you are hearing.  I don't see a preamp in your system, and if you are on a tight budget, I  would heartily advocate hearing a Schiit Freya preamp with the tubes upgraded to Shaguan 6SN7 tubes and you will get taste of audio splendor.  The next and final step would be a Don Sachs preamp. :-) Consider room treatments as well.  

ieales has some good suggestions too. Lots of soft things in the room, like carpets, can help.

I suggest thinking of your audio system as a whole. Something is causing harshness. There are two ways to treat that.

First, as Elizabeth suggested, attenuate the offending HF with ferrite beads. Cheap, easy, and probably effective, unless your speakers are the offending component.

Second, find the source of the harshness and fix it, usually by replacing something. Ultimately that will give better sound, and so I do it - but that's because the bug bites me daily. Warning: it's time consuming and costly, because it could be source, amplification, speaker, room.

To test the speaker cable hypothesis, do as noromance suggested.

@erik_squires  +1
Room first, then electronics, then cables.

@gunmetalzin - what version of Monster? They made many @ multiple price points.

Where are the speakers placed in what shaped and how furnished room? At what height relative to ears. Try sitting lower or higher. Forward / back

Try angling the speakers and / or tilting them back. Try reversing L & R to have tweets inboard or outboard.

You may want to try replacing the HF bi-wire link with a 5Ω 5W resistor and see if it helps.

Ignore most everything else here.