What causes listener fatique? cure?

Ohala beat me to it,tubes, in triode, if everything else is good = m&m (music & magic).

Sorry about the user name error Ohlala. Oh,and a 14 hr day of breaking rocks wouldn't help either.Cure for that? A city, state, or fedral job : where you only have to "lean" on the shovel.

my set up: adcom amp, preamp, and cd player from the early 90s (535 amp etc) and definitive tech bp2004 (don't laugh). The system doesn't give me drilling highs, but I can't seem to relax and listen to the music. I am planning to keep the current system for HT and start over for music. I've listened to proac 1.5 and sonus faber gp. I liked them but I want to hear tube stuff first

I find that most metal or inverted dome tweeters cause me listening fatique. Of course, there are exceptions. But, I haven't come across a lot of soft dome tweeters that irritate me. I find that I am becoming increasingly prone to the ill effects of a harsh system(headache, dizzyness, ringing, etc) as time goes by. Not sure if the reason is age, or being around systems that are tube/soft dome tweeter based. The cure is usually available. Either a speaker that features this type of tweeter, or retrofitting your speakers with a good soft dome(have done this). I don't believe that a lower priced speaker has to cause listener fatique. A great example would be the Coincident Triumph. A $1000 speaker featuring the fabulous Vifa D26 silk dome(my FAVORITE cheap tweeter). I have listened to this speaker in a system using an NAD integrated(with the treble set at +6 db), all StraightWire cabling, and budget CD players(Marantz, Pioneer, Sony), and it was still listenable(I didn't say good - but it didn't send me running, which I often do from a bright system) after an extended period.

Ok, I have to disagree with Trelja here. First, we agree that a bad or hot tweeter can certainly irritate. But I find that beamy soft dome tweeters are also irritating. The speaker recommended by Trelja may be fine, there are lots of good soft domes out there, but there are also a lot of good metal domes. My Harbeth Compact 7's have metal domes and I can listen to them forever.

If caused by the speaker, I think listener fatigue often comes from a bright upper-mid lower treble region, where the larger driver is working outside of its optimum range. I can think of a speaker with an 8 inch woofer a 3/4 inch tweeter and too high a crossover that tires me.