What causes listener fatique? cure?

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.

I've found a few things that outright bother me:

1) Cheap/older CD players have a digital brittleness to them.

2) Mass market solid state electronics played through powerful systems. I find that cheap little boomboxes are not as annoying by comparison.

3) High definition systems with a weak link. For example my audio physic system sounds wonderful, but if I put in a low quality component, you really hear it.

4) Gigantic, cheap mass market speakers. Hate them. I think those are the biggest ripoff in the world. You can buy a great sounding set of $200-300 monitor speakers and get much better sound.

5) CD's that are overprocessed. An example is the emmylou harris 'red dirt girl'. I think the performance would have been better if it had been left in a little more natural form. It sounds like it's been put through a digital blender then poured into an empty spam can (with a little extra gelatin).

6) Pop recordings from the 80's. Those were the days of big-@ solid state guitar amps played through fuzzed out, toneless plasti-kote guitars with a few infantile synthesizer backbeats for good measure. Go into a guitar store, and listen to a $400 ibanez with a line 6 processing amp against to a fender relic guitar played through a fender hot-rod tube amp, and you'll get the idea. What were they thinking? Ugghh.

i've found that almost anything in a system can cause listener fatigue. in my current setup, it took a tradeout of speaker cables to remove the last vestige of harshness that kept me from hours' long listening pleasure. .....kelly