How do I smooth out violins?

If you decide it's the speakers that are the problem I just might be tempted to take them off your hands. I would love to revisit the 1/2e's in my system.

Personally though I do not think the speakers are the culprit.

After reading your post and the responses, I listened to several CDs to see if I could hear anything similiar.

Beethoven Sym #9 1st movement
Bohm and the vienna Phil

Same piece but Karajan and the berliners SACD.

Julia Fischer Bach concertos with ASMF

The Fischer disc was a little fast, but the strings were easy on the ears. no complaints. Of course she was great.
The Bohm was GREAT. Very smooth. No irritation at all.
The Karajan sounded sort of harsh and strident.
Both of the Beethovens were recorded by DG.
The Bach by DECCA.

A lot of CDs are like this with big orchestras. I own a lot of them. Have not listened to them in years, once a I got a better performance and recording. Just a wall of sound that sort of grates on the ears.

I would advise you, as someone said, get a KNOWN well recorded violin heavy piece and listen. If you find it grating on your ears, then maybe you do have a gear peoblem. But remember, if your system will play at least ONE CD with mass violins to your satisfaction, then it will play ALL properly recorded CD the same way. If you modify your system to make BAD cds sound better, what will it make the GOOD cds sound like. Don't say, ' MO Better' :) Beethoven's 5&7 by Carlos Kleiber and the Vienna is considered one of the best classical recordings. Try it.
The Philadelphia Orch with Ormandy was know for it's violin section. But that was on LP. I can't believe I just said that. :) Good Luck.

Cheers

Try listening to some Sonus Faber speakers if you can. Stringed instruments are their forte. The Cremona M's are extremely nice.

Many possible causes. Here's what I did. 1) Got rid of any power cables that had any silver. (2) plugged my digital components into a balanced power conditioner. Good luck with find your solution.

I will also support the idea of getting power conditioning and better power cords. After that I think you need better cables and CD player for classical music......