"Violinists blast holes in violin experiment"

When blindfolded, even professional chefs often fail at identifying common foods, or even determining which is pork and which is turkey.

Yes, double blind test can be poorly designed, implemented and the results can be misconstrued. At the same time human senses can be easily confused, mislead and outright wrong. The problem for audiophiles is that we hold as an article of faith that we can tell very subtle differences between equipment using our flawed senses.

As a famous audiophile once said, "a man's got to know his limitations".

I don't know if the experiment was well designed or not, but it just seems odd to me that owners of very expensive violins and audio gear are so adamantly opposed to being asked to identify it without being able to see what they are listening to.

I daresay that had the tests returned a result in favour of the old 'Strads'......there would be not a voice raised in protest?

The best results in audio come from blind tests. This is especially true for turntables. The pretty ones with the names were always considered so much better than "Rega"; however, in blind tests that changed. Some of those much more expensive than Rega were graded equal, which is why I own a "Rega'.