Classical speakers that do violins well??

I agree MRT, I will herewith get in touch with Mr. Ma, as I am partial to the sound of Stradivari cellos. I am positive that Mr. Ma will immediately be sympathetic to the plight of this obscure audiophile, and will rush to Austin to facilitate my comparative analysis. I will report to this thread as soon as I have some hard data to share. Oops, I now remember that I really couldn't care less about the sound of his cello recordded in my room. . . I really want my room to emulate the sound of Ma's Stradivari at the Teatro Alla Scala. . . oh dear, this is now getting a little complicated. . . Oh well. . .

Daveyf, I am not at all surprised about your observations on SF Guarneri with violins. Like Vienna Acoustics, Sonus Faber are known for their extreme usicality, and by the way, they are also imported by Sumiko.

Again, thanks so much for the wealth of responses—even if a few are just a tad beyond my budget! :-)

Guidocorona, the Aragon 2004 is listed as having a damping in excess of 200, so I think I should be okay in that category.

MrT, until I can fit a symphony orchestra into my 21" x 12' room, I'll just have to compromise and go by my memory of what music sounds like in a concert hall—and get as close as I can, knowing I might fall a bit short. THANKS again, everyone.
-Bob

Mrtennis, you're not proposing a casual project. Mic selection is a mine field in and of itself. Also, NO MIC sounds like the instrument itself. A really good mic can get close, IF properly set up and feeding a very high quality recorder. You'll blow the OP's budget on one mic.

If you're really serious about understanding a speaker's ability to reproduce timbre accurately simply invite a few musicians over and ask them to focus on that part of the presentation. Timbre shouts out to muscicians. Listen to soprano, strings, trumpet and a good musician will easily identify inaccurate timbre.

Tacet makes some incredible string recordings of solo violin and small chamber groups. Any of the solo stuff by Janos Starker should put a cello in your listening room. (Cello is actually less challenging because of its mellow timbre).

Anyway, people that hear these instruments live day after day don't need a live vs. recorded demo to tell you if it's accurate or not.

Dave

in order to do a definitive test of a speaker's ability to reproduce timbre accurately, it is necessary to record an instrument in one's living room and compare the recording to a musician's presentation of the same music.

of course one will need a musician who is willing to particpate in this experiment as well as a way to method for recording, such as an open reel tape deck, a dat, or a cd recorder. hopefully, the quality of the recording is sufficient to make a meaningful comparison.

Not completely necessary....you could simply buy the equipment used to impress musicians in the world's top studios...the main monitors...there are literally at least a half dozen highly respected designs and all of them have excellent timbre and play at realistic sound levels of live music. You have to count on the fact that top artists and top conductors are auditioning play back of THEIR music on these same speakers which you can easily acquire...what more checks and controls do you want?

Of course your room will always be a major factor....no doubt that studios spend a lot on room designs and acoustic treatment. I figure it would be highly wasteful to get such quality speakers and then not treat a room at least modestly even though many of us have to respect domestic dual purpose requirements.

Good Luck! Try trusting the artists and musicians and sound engineers themselves...pick an artist or a record label with outsanding audiophile quality productions and then find out what they gear they are using...for example Bob Katz of Chesky uses Lipinski monitors....