Help with buzz / hum that's making me insane r

Thanks mapman. It's on digital and vinyl. My theory, which I'll be testing this weekend, is that it's a cabling issue. I didn't have this issue prior to taking my system apart and reinstalling it in a different configuration. A number of people (grant from Shunyata included) said that this may dissipate over time as things settle back in, and could also be because I have my 3 meter purist Speaker cables coiled around eachother under my rack, which is stupid. I'm going to change that this weekend, clean all contacts and plug any unused inputs/outputs and then see what happens. If that doesn't do it, then I will start at the very beginning and do a methodical sweep of the system to isolate it, bringing in a different amp if necessary.

Sounds like a plan.

Only thing else I can think of to be alert to is some recordings may have natural sibilance baked into them for various reasons relating to the production. Just be certain that the recordings you test with are not naturally sibilant. If its happening consistently from recording to recording, however, this is probably not the case.

Good luck!

If you have a copy of Holly Cole's "Blame It On My Youth," the first cut has an excellent song to test sibilance. She sings "slip into silent slumber, sail on a silver mist, slowly but surely your senses will cease to exist." What a line for sibilance. On my current system there is no sibilance issue with this cut. But I have noted problems with other pieces of gear.

I'm going to post my results from my experiments to solve this issue, that way it could maybe be useful for someone else who finds themselves in the same predicament.

I've thoroughly tested all equipment, bringing in alternate pieces when necessary (speakers, integrated amp and cd player in place of media server) and the issue doesn't change, so it's not the usual suspects (amp, source or speaker). I shut off the breakers to the rest of the house and verified it's not an appliance on another line. I've tried a variety of recordings to make sure it's not just an issue with one recording.

Following the advice of Grant from Shunyata I uncoiled my speaker cables and ran them straighter, without any coils to the speakers and let them settle back down. This was the first thing to have positive sonic results in my experiment. Sibilance isn't gone altogether, but treble sounds more open with zero distortion. Playing Marie Laveau from Kenny Barron's "Things Unseen" Album, the trumpet sounds still a little piercing, with sibilance on highly extended passages, but better than it before. Then, I took out my Nordost IC and took it over to my dad's to test it out in his system (this is the newest cable I added) thinking maybe something was up with it, but it sounds frigging amazing. I bring it back home and do an A/B with the purist IC and sure enough, the sibilance is only noticeable on recordings like the kenny barron that less than stellar trumpet production work (IMO). So I think it comes down to the Nordost being a bad match for the Dali's. When I first put it in, I was really in love with it, and I'm feeling a bit foolish for being so quick to jump up and down for joy. I think the Dali's are just too forward for the Nordost, which is a bummer because I love this cable. In any case, I still plan on doing a connector cleaning and further isolation tests to make sure, but I'm heaving a pretty big sigh of relief.

Thanks everyone for your help.