Soft rims, perhaps, found in binoculars (5)
I believe the answer is:
prism
'in binoculars' is the definition.
The definition and answer can be both man-made objects as well as being singular nouns.
Maybe there's an association between them I don't understand?
'soft rims perhaps' is the wordplay.
'soft' becomes 'p' (musical abbreviation for 'piano').
'perhaps' indicates anagramming the letters.
'rims' is an anagram of 'rism'.
'p'+'rism'='PRISM'
'found' acts as a link.
Can you help me to learn more?
(Other definitions for prism that I've seen before include "Light-diffracting glass" , "Triangular piece of glass to deviate a beam" , "Three-sided object that separates light into colours" , "Disperser or reflector of light" , "It breaks light up into rainbow's colours" .)