Cables to settle brightness

+1 on the Aurender streamer—mine has been a solid performer.

i posted the following in the parallel post on cables that add a touch of brightness to the sound... bears repeating here, imho

i would add, to several who have commented that one should not use cables to alter the tonality of one’s system -- that sometimes we have a system that is excellent in many regards, works very well, pleases us mostly, but just needs a little touch of treble boost or a slight, subtle mellowing of the edge...  this is where cables can help --  i view them as ’last 1-2% adjusters’ for a good system that is pretty much doing what we desire, kind of fine-tuning tools in the ol' tool kit so to speak

it happens, we have all been there...

@bondmanp - are you sure it is not the Denafrips dac - was this in your old digital chain that sounded better?   It is unlikely a streamer nor cables that will cause harshness in the top end whereas a DAC can easily be the cause. 

Having said that, I did find on an old Naim CD player that upgrading the mains cable reduced some of the harshness. 

Use the tone controls.  That's why they're there.  Real audiophiles know their value.

Using cables to tame brightness isn’t going to work to change brightness! Period! 

Strange, because I did exactly that very successfully, with some Cardas Golden Cross ICs.