Womaz - I know that you've tried plenty of things and hesitate to suggest anything else but...
Listening room. I previously had a large, bright listening room with plenty of glass, high pitched ceiling wooden floors and dry-lined walls and my system always sounded a bit bright even after adding rugs, paintings. There are some resonances/reflections that you wont be able to get rid of unless you cover every surface... I know someone who went to great lengths using acoustic panelling etc and it really worked for him.
Devialet Firmware. Several people (including me) have reported increased brightness with some of the more-recent versions. I find 8.1.3 too bright in my system and went back to 8.1.0 which is very good but brighter than I remember with 7.1.. and earlier versions. Are you running SAM?
Speaker cables. If I were you I would leave the Van Damme cables in your system for at least a week and see whether you get to like them. Then switch back to the Tellurium and see what you think then. A good alternative to try is Naim NACA5 (I think its about £30/m) - its not bright and is resolving (I know people who use it in £80k Naim systems) and the only downside is that it is a bit inflexible and a pain to install...
USB cable. I dont know which cable you're using? I'm a cable sceptic but did find differences between cables. I tried Chord Sarum TA at a ridiculous price (£750) and it was miles better than a cheapo cable... I was very surprised. Chord Silver Plus at a more reasonable price has had very positive reviews.
Quality of recordings. I also tried listening to the tracks you listed - streamed from Qobuz. They're all ok on my system (i.e. not too bright or sibilant) though I can easily understand how the IMHO poorly recorded/mixed Maccabbee and Oasis tracks would sound bright in many systems and Kasey Chambers' vocal peaks make my ears buzz (-23.5dB)
However, turn her down a few dB and the sound is fine. I even went on to listen to some of her other tracks which I quite enjoyed - in fact I'm listening to her now. [EDIT: some definite problems with harshness on 'The Captain' as well....] Clearly some music is intended to played on iPhones etc and won't ever sound 'right' on hi-fi systems.
Loudspeakers. FWIW, I've heard the Twenty 23s several times though mainly in Naim systems and have not found them overly bright... they're one of my local dealers favourite speakers certainly at that price level. If you want a sweeter sound try Sonus Faber. I really like Wilson Benesch speakers as they have a very clear, open, natural sound even more so than PMCs but they have good tweeters and never sound harsh (that is since I sold my Naim CDX2 which did...)
Listening room. I previously had a large, bright listening room with plenty of glass, high pitched ceiling wooden floors and dry-lined walls and my system always sounded a bit bright even after adding rugs, paintings. There are some resonances/reflections that you wont be able to get rid of unless you cover every surface... I know someone who went to great lengths using acoustic panelling etc and it really worked for him.
Devialet Firmware. Several people (including me) have reported increased brightness with some of the more-recent versions. I find 8.1.3 too bright in my system and went back to 8.1.0 which is very good but brighter than I remember with 7.1.. and earlier versions. Are you running SAM?
Speaker cables. If I were you I would leave the Van Damme cables in your system for at least a week and see whether you get to like them. Then switch back to the Tellurium and see what you think then. A good alternative to try is Naim NACA5 (I think its about £30/m) - its not bright and is resolving (I know people who use it in £80k Naim systems) and the only downside is that it is a bit inflexible and a pain to install...
USB cable. I dont know which cable you're using? I'm a cable sceptic but did find differences between cables. I tried Chord Sarum TA at a ridiculous price (£750) and it was miles better than a cheapo cable... I was very surprised. Chord Silver Plus at a more reasonable price has had very positive reviews.
Quality of recordings. I also tried listening to the tracks you listed - streamed from Qobuz. They're all ok on my system (i.e. not too bright or sibilant) though I can easily understand how the IMHO poorly recorded/mixed Maccabbee and Oasis tracks would sound bright in many systems and Kasey Chambers' vocal peaks make my ears buzz (-23.5dB)
However, turn her down a few dB and the sound is fine. I even went on to listen to some of her other tracks which I quite enjoyed - in fact I'm listening to her now. [EDIT: some definite problems with harshness on 'The Captain' as well....] Clearly some music is intended to played on iPhones etc and won't ever sound 'right' on hi-fi systems.Loudspeakers. FWIW, I've heard the Twenty 23s several times though mainly in Naim systems and have not found them overly bright... they're one of my local dealers favourite speakers certainly at that price level. If you want a sweeter sound try Sonus Faber. I really like Wilson Benesch speakers as they have a very clear, open, natural sound even more so than PMCs but they have good tweeters and never sound harsh (that is since I sold my Naim CDX2 which did...)
IMac macOS 10.15.3 (no link to Devialet 
) / MacBook Pro Retina OS X 10.14.4 / Linn LP12 / Devialet 200 / Wilson Benesch Discovery.
) / MacBook Pro Retina OS X 10.14.4 / Linn LP12 / Devialet 200 / Wilson Benesch Discovery. Qobuz Desktop Latest Version / Audirvana 3.2.18 / Audirvana Remote / iTunes 12.9 / AIR 3.0.4 / Wi-Fi / FW 8.1.0 / SAM 50%
Cambridge, UK (Updated 27th February, 2020)
