Hear sibilance on Krall, Famous Blue, D. Fagen?

Rebbi,

Sibilance is a manner of articulation of fricative and affricate consonants, made by directing a stream of air with the tongue towards the sharp edge of the teeth, which are held close together; a consonant that uses sibilance may be called a sibilant, or a strident.

Wikipedia

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I hadn't listened to Warnes' "Famous Blue Raincoat" for a while So I did so today as well Krall's, "When I look In Your Eyes".

As for "Famous Blue Raincoat", "First We Take Manhattan", Warnes voice sounds smooth and warm. No edginess heard on my cd. My CD was made in 1991 under the "Private Music inc." label distributed by BMG.

Krall's "When I Look In Your Eyes", "Let's Face The Music And Dance". On that track in particular Krall drags out some of the words like it's her last breath. Especially the words, dance, music, romance, and chance. I guess I just never noticed it before. I think the mike used and the closeness to her mouth with the way see pronounced her words brings out the sss and zzzs but in no way, at least on my system, is her voice irritating or the sibilance over exaggerated. Because sibilance was what I focusing on while listening to the CD I found myself listening to her every word, yes, s and zs, but again not exaggerated and not irritating to listen to. I think she deliberately wanted the song to sound the way it does. Listen to the track again and see if she doesn't stretch, lengthen, certain words out. Especially the words dance, music, romance, and chance.
Let's Face The Music And Dance video.

I am not sure you won’t find a hint of sibilance in any female voice if closely listening to every word spoken with the letter sound of s or z in it. The question is are the "sibilance" exaggerated in the recording to the point where they are irritating to the listener or is the over exaggeration of "sibilance" caused by the audio system?

I ran across an old CD I use to take with me when auditioning audio equipment at a B&M audio dealerships.
The CD is by Alison Krauss, "Now That I've Found You".
Krauss' voice should sound sweet, not harsh or edgy.
That was not the case on some digital equipment or speakers I listened to.
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Jea,

Thank you, and very interesting, indeed!

I listened to the track again today. All is well until she gets to the word "soon [we'll be without the moon…]." The letter "S" in the word "soon" is very strident. I'm not sure why.

Sibilence usually comes into play most naturally with the letter S in vocals. Depending on amounts and frequency of occurrence could be natural or a form of distortion somewhere in the recording and or playback chain.

All is well until she gets to the word "soon [we'll be without the moon…]." The letter "S" in the word "soon" is very strident.
09-04-15: Rebbi

She sings the phase twice in the song. Neither passage of the words "soooon, we'll be without the moon", sounds hard or harsh to me.

I think you need to listen to the rest of the CD a few times and stop concentrating so much on track #1. You also probably need to put more hours on the new speakers.

You never did say what you are using for a digital cable from the transport to the dac, and the length of the cable.
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Hello Rebbi. I noticed mention of a cheater plug. Perhaps you can go a step more. Try reversing the ac plugs orientation on your cd player. If your system is becoming more refined it becomes possible to notice faults previously masked. If reversing the orientation of the ac plug improves this CD it means all CD's will now sound better. The other thing I would check on is the phase. Reverse the phase if you have a switch on your preamp or cd player. If no swith then simply reverse the red and black power cables to your speakers. Unfortunately recordings are mixed as to phase and being sensitive to it I wouldn't be without a phase reverse switch such as I have on my Spectral preamp. Good luck and please advise. Pete