Renowned violinists cannot reliably distinguish Stradivarius violins from modern ones by listening

Evidence

A paper by Fritz et al. (2014) reports results of elaborate blind evaluations of six new and six Old Italian violins (including five by Stradivari). The players were “significant” professional soloists and the evaluations were done in a rehearsal room and in a small concert hall. The result was that when asked to choose a violin to replace their own for a hypothetical tour, 6 of the 10 soloists chose new violins. In the individual ratings, a single new violin was chosen four times, a single Stradivari three times, and two new violins and a Stradivari once each. Tracking those instruments that soloists rejected as unsuitable, the new violins prevailed by a 6:1 ratio. So, to 10 performers, seven of whom routinely play Old Italian violins, the new—much less expensive—alternatives were very attractive. — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 43 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Blind tests show new violins beat Stradivaris for most soloists — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 43; Current acoustic models cannot explain how experts distinguish fine timbre differences between instruments

Related

• Blind tests show new violins beat Stradivaris for most soloists (similarity 0.90)
• Blind listening tests cannot distinguish Strads from modern violins (similarity 0.88)
• Blind tests show little measurable superiority of famous old violins (similarity 0.87)
• Current acoustic models cannot explain how experts distinguish fine timbre differences between instruments (similarity 0.82)
• Frequency-domain analysis may hide the very properties that make violins great (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Blind tests show new violins beat Stradivaris for most soloists #corroborates (0.95) — , Toole, Floyd E - Sound reproduction-…, 43
• Current acoustic models cannot explain how experts distinguish fine timbre differences between instruments #expands (0.85)