It's important for everyone except politicians to get a good value for our money in a deal but that won't work so well for a Stradivarius violin since researchers found discerning listeners preferred the sound of new violins over that of a Stradivarius when performing in a blind test (i.e. audience could not see the performer or the instrument. (Phys.org: Ditch the Stradivarius? New violins sound better: study)
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Generic picture of a violin which probably is not a Stradivarius.
Despite the lofty reputation of old violins by Italian masters such as Antonio Stradivari, blindfolded listeners in concert halls in New York and Paris say they preferred the sound of newer instruments.
The latest salvo in the long-running debate over which violins best project sound appeared Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.
"Because Old Italian instruments are now priced beyond the reach of the vast majority of players, it seems important to test the fundamental assumption of their tonal superiority," said the study, led by Claudia Fritz, a researcher at France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
- PO
The article is there for the interested student but we will stick with the fundamental philosophical problem that expensive things are better and may believe it even in the face of abundant evidence it's not always true.
One of the biggest bugaboos for guitarists comes from the idea a '59 Les Paul has an inherently better sound and, as with the Stradivarius, there's never been any blind test of this nature which showed any value in spending half a million dollars for that '59 Les Paul, particularly when we can get a Godin xtSA with more features for $900 and have it in a week.
The problem isn't with the perception of sound but rather the perception of money, particularly with how more of it implies better quality but there are so many examples of when that's not true. We don't need to slash Kim Kardashian but her lifestyle begs for it when she offers nothing of any substance except a grossly malformed backside and yet she's worth millions.
Only in America is she worth millions and, amazingly, that's where the perception of the importance of money is most distorted. You could pay millions for Kim Kardashian or just that little dowry for that li'l mama you did take home so tell me again about the importance of money, my brothers.
Credit: CC0 Public Domain
Generic picture of a violin which probably is not a Stradivarius.
Despite the lofty reputation of old violins by Italian masters such as Antonio Stradivari, blindfolded listeners in concert halls in New York and Paris say they preferred the sound of newer instruments.
The latest salvo in the long-running debate over which violins best project sound appeared Monday in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, a peer-reviewed US journal.
"Because Old Italian instruments are now priced beyond the reach of the vast majority of players, it seems important to test the fundamental assumption of their tonal superiority," said the study, led by Claudia Fritz, a researcher at France's National Center for Scientific Research (CNRS).
- PO
The article is there for the interested student but we will stick with the fundamental philosophical problem that expensive things are better and may believe it even in the face of abundant evidence it's not always true.
One of the biggest bugaboos for guitarists comes from the idea a '59 Les Paul has an inherently better sound and, as with the Stradivarius, there's never been any blind test of this nature which showed any value in spending half a million dollars for that '59 Les Paul, particularly when we can get a Godin xtSA with more features for $900 and have it in a week.
The problem isn't with the perception of sound but rather the perception of money, particularly with how more of it implies better quality but there are so many examples of when that's not true. We don't need to slash Kim Kardashian but her lifestyle begs for it when she offers nothing of any substance except a grossly malformed backside and yet she's worth millions.
Only in America is she worth millions and, amazingly, that's where the perception of the importance of money is most distorted. You could pay millions for Kim Kardashian or just that little dowry for that li'l mama you did take home so tell me again about the importance of money, my brothers.
2 comments:
Well I could not buy my Polaris Slingshot without it.
I think I may have even seen one of those slingshots and such devices have become highly deadly, haven't they.
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