NPR: Can You Pick The Strad? A Double-Blind Violin Test

[brew]

Originally Posted by Rolo 46

(doesnt the Berlin Phil use Yamaha fiddles ?)
Technology moves on
Yam can possibly give consistent tone, economy, volume and ease of play unknown to the ancients

This is the biggest bunch of GS hearsay crap! Yamaha at best makes a student violin suitable for a 12 year old and that's it. And orchestras don't wholesale buy instruments for their players.

[Rolo 46]

This thread does generate considerable ire..
Almost to the level of the umble Zoom
Which makes folk quite incandescent
Its really about Persuassion and the dreaded double blind test.

Yamaha is a fine company and makes excellent Pianos,Gtrs,Amps,Speakers ,mixers and DAWS.
It also produces huge numbers of chips and processers

The Artida YVN 500S violin is based on a Strad but uses 3D CAD process and ARE wood reforming techniques .
They cost many thousands of pounds







YVN500S

Handlare Produktregistrering

Based on the designs of Stradivarius and optimized with Yamaha’s A.R.E. technology, Yamaha’s flagship violin delivers the finest nuances required to create music. Enhancing the tone of the Stradivarius through the use of technology and the craftsman’s skill elevates this instrument to a superior class and provides the finest level of playability that meets the expectations of professional musicians.

[brew]

Originally Posted by Rolo 46

The Artida YVN 500S violin is based on a Strad but uses 3D CAD process and ARE wood reforming techniques.

That is interesting that Yamaha would mass-market a "serious" violin, and if it is any good it is quite an accomplishment, especially if they are all identically good. But even at $8,000, you are not in the professional market as far as stringed instruments go.

[Rolo 46]

The Concertmaster of the VPO liked it....

[faramita]

Originally Posted by brew

This is the biggest bunch of GS hearsay crap! Yamaha at best makes a student violin suitable for a 12 year old and that's it. And orchestras don't wholesale buy instruments for their players.

Herbert von Karajan had clarinets made for BPO bacause he liked them to tune to a slightly lower A. So I have read.
I still do not think it would be possible to impose uniform violins from Yamaha, very good as they might be, on a string section.
I also doubt that anybody playing a fiddle in BPO has an instrument costing as little as $8000. They might be all deaf fools, but I doubt it.

[Don S]

Originally Posted by faramita

I also doubt that anybody playing a fiddle in BPO has an instrument costing as little as $8000. They might be all deaf fools, but I doubt it.

Especially with the lousy exchange rate that would only be about 5000 Euros!

[faramita]

Originally Posted by Don S

Especially with the lousy exchange rate that would only be about 5000 Euros!

Exactly. I bet most of their violin bows are worth more than that!

[PoxyMusic]

In the study, the three "inexpensive models" averaged $33,000 each.
The expensive ones averages $3.3 million each.

I really don't know how much a professional violin goes for, but it seems to me that those in the study were all excellent, some were just a lot older.

[ISedlacek]

In a test in 2009, the British violinist Matthew Trusler played his 1711 Stradivarius, said to be worth two million U.S. dollars, and four modern violins made by the Swiss violin-maker Michael Rhonheimer. One of Rhonheimer's violins, made with wood that the Empa researcher Francis Schwarze had treated with fungi, received 90 of the 180 votes for the best tone, while the Stradivarius came in second with just 39 votes. The majority (113) of the listeners misidentified the winning violin as the Stradivarius.[7]

[KevinNYC]

I'm curious if the instruments were tuned to A=432hz as the stradivarius was designed, or to the "modern" standard A=440hz.

[ISedlacek]

Do we have any real evidence how the instruments were tuned and played that time ?

[boojum]

This article, in the Sunday NYT, covers the Strad vs modern test and comments on it toward the end of the article. The whole article is worth a read: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/02/12/us...adivarius.html

[klaukholm]

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[Rolo 46]

Rainer Kuchl

YVN500S - Acoustic Violins - Strings - Musical Instruments - Products - Yamaha United States

[klaukholm]

Deleted

[David Spearritt]

Originally Posted by klaukholm

You do realize olympic champions did not get their skill from the thighmaster they endorse tight?

Tight thighs would be important in their job, I imagine.

[Rolo 46]

Dear Klauk
I know nothing of fiddles and something of thighs
I do know Yamaha to be an excellent company and makers of fine and affordable fidelity devices
My solo career is on hold but my time is at a premium.
That showbiz.

[klaukholm]

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[Rolo 46]

I repeat
Yamaha is a serious Japanese company who produce quality musical goods of true value with continuity .
Its QC is exemplary
That I am confident about.

[Ozpeter]

Many years ago at the start of some sessions in Amsterdam to record the Brahms Sonatas for Piano and Violin, the violinist turned up with an unusually large violin case. He opened it up and within were two violins, not just one. "I thought we could first try which of these two will sound best on the recording" said he. "Maybe this Strad - or perhaps this other Strad."

He kept that violin case with him at all times throughout the three session days. Needless to say, they were loaned instruments.

If I kept the test recordings, they might make interesting listening now. The difference was quite marked but we didn't have a modern instrument to make a further comparison.

[klaukholm]

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[Papanate]

Originally Posted by Jim Williams

Who cares?
We really need to know why the 57 stratocaster sounds better then the 55 stratocaster.

In whose hands? An Instruments 'quality' is fully dependent on musician playing it, the room it's played in, and the microphones, preamps, mixing board and recording medium.

The test is a fallacy because it's trying to prove something unprovable.

[Rolo 46]

Originally Posted by klaukholm

As a professional orchestral string player, I have yet to encounter a yamaha string instrument on stage in the 15 or so professional orchestras I have worked with, and I am confident this is not about to change.

The suggestion this is an adequate professional tool is akin to me telling the engineer my sony minidisc stereo mic is all he needs to record the orchestra properly. Sony has good QC after all

If your Sony mic cost $8K I'm totally confident it would.
You miss the point of the thread entirely
Double blind testing and the hidden power of persuasion
We had a BBC Promenade Concert last summer where the BBC Concert Orchestra played instruments made from junkyard detritus
The band of old pros produced very acceptable noises from the rubbish.
Mind you, as Sir Thomas Beecham said ,the English don't like music but they love the noise it makes.

[Rolo 46]

Charles Darwin was a hobbyist.