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Elite Violinists Can't Distinguish Between a Stradivarius and a Modern Violin
sciencehabit (1205606) writes "If you know only one thing about violins, it is probably this: A 300-year-old Stradivarius supposedly possesses mysterious tonal qualities unmatched by modern instruments. However, even elite violinists cannot tell a Stradivarius from a top-quality modern violin, a new double-blind study suggests. Like the sound of coughing during the delicate second movement of Beethoven's violin concerto, the finding seems sure to annoy some people, especially dealers who broker the million-dollar sales of rare old Italian fiddles. But it may come as a relief to the many violinists who cannot afford such prices."
I bet that's worth a fair bit.
Yes, but you *can* tell the difference if you play the recordings on the original vinyl with a tube amp. That's how Stradivarius intended his instruments to be heard. He even held the wood close to a fire for a few minutes, to give it that warm sound.
For all intensive purposes, "whom" is no longer a word. That begs the question, "who cares"?
Ugh - get it right. They are holding it wrong...
Ok, Stop fiddling around!
You have the right to remain sentient. If you give up the right to remain sentient, you will be elected to public office
Too late. The summary already gave our resident armchair-experts enough fodder laugh over how everyone is stupid except them.
New violins don't have cool names like Stradivarius though. That name is so epic, it could make anything look or sound high brow and expensive. Stradivarius Coffee, home of the $75 latte. Stradivarius Bounce House, let your kids bounce around for only $125/hr. Stradivarius Water, Anything less, will dehydrate you, only $49.99 per 8oz bottle made out of the finest Stradivarius plastics. With a name like that, people will pay anything.
These violins are to be heard, not seen. They should have done a double deaf study not double blind study.
sed -e 's/Chuck Norris/Rajnikant/g' joke > fact
It's because they are "playing it wrong" in the tests
No it's because they weren't using Monster Cables!
Anybody who know what they're doing can easily tell the difference between a 320kbps mp3 and their uncompressed counterpart. Simply right click on the song in iTunes, then click "Get Info."
Remember: Price and rarity are another set of entities altogether. A solid gold violin couldn't be played,
You've never been down to Georgia, I take it.
but would be worth a ludicrous amount of money.
I'd bet it against your soul, because I think I'm better than you.
If you think I voted for Trump because of this post, you're wrong. I voted for Dr. Jill Stein of the Green Party. Again.
Oh come on, this study is bogus, the artcle said it was a double-blind study, but there is noway in hell that a violinist of sufficient skill to extract from a Cremonese violin anything close to it's potential, wouldn't know a 300 year old instrument the second they picked it up; this study neither proves or disproves anything.
One difference no one talks about it that the wood in a stringed instrument "loosens" as it's played as the wood is exposed to sonic nodes and antinodes and developes it's tone; if it's hard to tell the difference between an elite modern violin and a Strad now, wait untill the modern has been played of a 1000 hours!
Apocalypse Cancelled, Sorry, No Ticket Refunds
Sorry, the comparison is still unfair since the modern ones can be set to 11.
They should have listened to it through top quality Bose speakers, connected to a 1930's vintage mic and amp with oxygen-free Monster cables. I bet then they would know the difference.
SJW's don't eliminate discrimination. They just expropriate it for themselves.