Heresy, but here goes: Devialet to Lumin?

[Flashman]

Having owned the Vivid Audio B1, now the B1 Decades and spending several hours listening to both the Giya G1 and the G1 Spirit driven by Devialets, I can assure you that "harsh" is not a term that can be used to describe the combo of Vivid and Devialet. 

I once owned an Audiolab MDAC and used that in combination with a set of B&W805's with Audioquest cabling. It gave new meaning to the term "digital glare" and even the lowest of male voices had some form of sibilance. Changing from Audioquest to van den Hul made a significant difference and more so introducing elements of room acoustic treatment.

Remember the Vivids are very accurate speakers and the combination will never give you the "analogue" type sound you will get from Sonus Fabers driven by Pathos valves but it will never be harsh or digital. You will hear what was recorded, warts and all and a poor recording will be punished. 

Something else must be wrong.

Listen to Nora Jones' Come Away With Me album, track no 3 - Cold Cold Heart and tell us what you hear. The entire album is a fantastic recording and this track should give you a good indication of what a properly recorded track should sound like.

Drifter, thanks for your thoughts.  Regarding your statement, which I put in bold above, I think this is my central issue, probably exacerbated by my choice of cable loom.  I plan to try some different interconnects and maybe some DSP.  As for the Vivid speakers, I have come to like them but must realize that their accurateness sometimes can be hard on poor recordings.  Cheers, Michael