the sound of massed violins in classical orchestral recordings

larry5729...You are opening a can of worms when you imply that some speakers may be better than others at playing certain genres. I started a thread on this subject looking for speakers that were considered especially adept at playing classical, and particularly the violin, and I was blasted. More than one poster called the idea ridiculous and insisted that a good speaker will play all genres equally well. Some of them weren't very nice about how they said it.

larry5729...BTW, I listen mostly to classical and I am very happy with my Harbeth Super HL5 Plus speakers. 

cal91,

Ironic, I just started a thread on that subject.  Let’s see what happens.

Three factors come to mind. 

1.  Microphones used, pickup pattern of those mics and miking technique.  Having made many orchestral recordings using a variety of mics and miking techniques and in a variety of halls, it has been my experience that these variables can make a real difference in the way strings (and everything else for that matter) sound in playback.  The best vinyl recordings I have heard seem to be older ones that were made using very simple miking techniques.  While there are variations in the smoothness of the string sound among those recordings, they are all very listenable.  Much time was typically taken to make tests in order to achieve proper balance of the various orchestral sections as well as the balance of direct to reverberant sound with the goal to get the mics in absolutely the ideal location.  There are a number of more recent recordings that were made using similar minimalist techniques that sound impressive as well, some analog and others digital.  Many post mid-1970 recordings were made using overly complex miking techniques that sound awful.  The development of multi channel recorders and mixing consoles created opportunities for engineers to twiddle away to a fare thee well.  Some engineers justify this claiming that it is far easier (and less costly) to achieve proper balance in mixdown if they mic sections of the orchestra more closely.   No one listens to strings or any other instrument from 5-6 feet away in a concert hall save the musicians themselves.  There are sometimes some nasty mechanical sounds one can hear when very close to an instrument that just naturally get attenuated and mixed with reflected sound in the concert hall and seem to disappear by the time it reaches the audience.
2.  There is the psycho acoustic effect of actually being in the concert hall and seeing the musicians play.  It has been my observation that we accept sounds in a live performance that we would reject as troubling in some way when in playing back a recording of that same performance in a listening room.
3.  When we listen to a recording in a listening room, we hear not only what was recorded, but the influence of the listening environment and the playback equipment.  We can chase our tails (and empty our bank accounts) trying this type of tweeter or that type of preamp and never achieve what we heard (or thought we heard) in the concert hall.   

Very interesting discussion.  I have been listening to what I think are the best massed string recordingI have come across:  The Cleveland Orchestra’s A New Century boxed set. Disc 1 has a string orchestra arrangement of Beethoven’s string quartet No. 15 that is extremely well recorded. As is the entire three disc set—at $50 an absolute bargain: 3 SACDs, a code for 24/96 hi-res downloads, and A lavish 180 page book.  
I used to find mass strings to be hashy on a couple  of recordings of The Lark Ascending.  These same recordings sound much better now.  Can’t pinpoint the reason but three things come to mind: upgraded power cables in my sources (Nordost Vishnu’s and now Morrow MAP3s), more powerful amp (Bel Canto Ref 500m), and IsoAcoustic Gaia feet under my speakers (Dali Mentor 6s).