what causes the sss in words like 'thisss'?

CD players.

This is digital sibilance. You probably hear it most strongly on female voices on CD recordings. I found the best way to get rid of this (I too hate it.) It is sooo anoying is to;
1) Buy a more expensive CD player/digital source with better anti-jitter, clock, and DACs and that is tubed, and;
2) Go to tubes from solid state gear, or;
3) Go back to vinyl (best option IMHO)

U2's "crumbs from your table" for an example is really killing me. It's one of the better songs off the new album and bono is making my ears bleed (some may not think that's abnormal). Does anyone else mind listening to this song to see if it's the recording?
Thanks.

Monstachuck

It's the album. I am a U2 fan, but the last couple albums (not that U2 albums are "Audiophile") have been poorly recorded. Great music though!

Brian

You are more apt to hear the negative sibilance on female vocalists than anything else simply because females (and a few males) have extreme precision when pronouncing the 'ssss' sound.

And it happens to be one of the most difficult sounds to reproduce accurately.

For some reason, this is the area that is most notably improved once proper line conditioning has been installed.

And it sure beats listening to all that sh'ing noise.

In my experience, I've not noticed this negative sibilance having anything directly to do with the room acoustics or digital sources. But I suppose it's possible.

-IMO