Help with fatiguing sound in my PC system

My ears won't stop ringing. I might have tinnitis. If so, I'm selling all my gear. The sound fatigue might have nothing to do with the jitter, the speakers or the amp, it might have everything to do with how loud I've listened to my music for the past 3 years.

The increased detail, clarity, resolution and extension are remarkable, but so is the amount of listening fatigue.

1. The "audiophile virtues" listed before the "but" are often, IME, associated with the fatigue problem stated after. Hard to maximize detail and clarity and ease of listening, since detail and clarity are often associated with edgy highs, esp. at your price point.

2. Do your speakers have metal drivers?; if so, this a possible cause of fatigue.

3. When you move to replace your speakers (a priority, IM0, if the answer to 2 is yes), look at Fritzspeakers, Fritz does nice silk dome designs at a good price, which are easy on the ears.

4. From the pictures, it looks like you have a "hard" room. Softening things up with plants, wall hangings and furniture could help.

5. I'm not sure if it will help with the edge, but adding an augment like jPlay or Pure Music to iTunes will likely make a noticible improvement, for short $. I use PM, and have heard good things about jplay.

6. If you have tinnitus (not unlikely) do not sell your rig. There is not a good treatment, but having music on makes the symptoms less bothersome, since it masks the ringing. Get an spl meter, and keep it below 85.

Just my 3c. Good luck, and keep us posted.

John

A good tube amplifier can have wonderful detail and extension but also may be warm, beautiful and non-fatiguing.

since last post I have acquired a JK MkIII sync USB to SPDIF converter to replace the Vlink. Beyond the order of magnitude improvement in fidelity, its made it enjoyable to listen to PC audio fed direct from DAC to amp and helped me diagnose some "edginess" issues on certain CD's as preamp exaggerated. Looks like the Dlink III will be next leaving my system since its 2006 design has become the limiting factor for musical detail. No question that the JK MkIII gets you far more musical enjoyment with the Dlink III than the 96khz Vlink and the combination eliminates the musical fatigue I encountered with the Vlink

Thanks, Davide, I plan to upgrade my converter as well. I upgraded my speakers and the brightness was alleviated somewhat. Pics will follow soon in my system profile. Work is killing me right now, can't get to that yet.
The choice of DACs kind of changes a bit when you already have a really good USB converter, eh? I imagine I will be in your boat (swapping DACs) in about a year or so.