ncarver;576106 Wrote: > I did learn one thing as a (indirect) result of reading his site. He > mentions that in blind tests concert violinists cannot tell a > Stradivarius from a "regular" violin. Now this struck me as highly > suspect given that I know that acoustic instruments each have unique > tonal signatures and musicians make their living from being able to > understand and manipulate tonal color.
Actually, anyone who has passing familiarity with concert violins knows that Dan is quite right. There have been innumerable blind tests involving Stradivari, and fine instruments from Stradivarius and other makers up to the 20th C have been shown to be indistinguishable to the ears of masters. Nicely summarized in the Wikipedia article at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Stradivarius. It's not to say that the Stradivari aren't beautiful instruments, worth owning and even worth the premium they command; it's rather that the belief, the mythology, can be more than a bit much. Not unlike audiophilia. R. -- RonM ------------------------------------------------------------------------ RonM's Profile: http://forums.slimdevices.com/member.php?userid=17029 View this thread: http://forums.slimdevices.com/showthread.php?t=81616 _______________________________________________ audiophiles mailing list audiophiles@lists.slimdevices.com http://lists.slimdevices.com/mailman/listinfo/audiophiles
