Can good speakers take edge off digital?

02-07-09: Toufu
I am using Monarchy NM24 tube DAC and Marantz SA-15S1 SACD player.

I have a monarchy nm24 as well, no edginess when using it with my powered monitors or my devores. I use a computer source. I am sure you know that the monarchy DAC's tube outputs are the lower connectors - the SS output is much "crisper" than the tube output.

experiment with another amp. you may find they are underpowered.

Do you still have the edginess if you take the DAC out of the chain and use the Marantz only as the source? If so, the DAC may be the culprit, but if not you should probably look at the speakers, amp or cabling.

Better speakers, more transparency, the more digital flaws will be revealed. Good digital is a must or you will be begging for some digital band-aid....Analog is needed just to know a good reference for music.

You have your answer, your analog doesn't have this problem, the DAC is your problem. You can either tweak, mod or get a new DAC. At $1k it may be impossible to get both resolution and smoothness, I think you have to go to a higher price point to get both. If you are handy with a soldering iron, or hire a tech you could mod your DAC to smooth out the edginess. Some tweaks, those mentioned above could also be all you need.