Interesting bilind testing of Stradivarius Violin


Heard this the other day on NPR and found it quite interesting.

Stradivarius Violin Blind Testing

This of course relates to high end Audio too, when listening to your music System, how much do you use your eyes and how much do you use your ears.

Good Listening

Peter
128x128pbnaudio
..a Strad with what strings...with what bow....with what player....with what rosin...in what hall....there is no way to tell!!!
****You know, I wouldn't be surprised at all if most of them were deaf, quite frankly.****

Huh?!?!
05-20-14: Frogman
****You know, I wouldn't be surprised at all if most of them were deaf, quite frankly.****

Huh?!?!

He's referring to the fact that SPLs in the middle of an orchestra can be quite loud. If ear protection is not used, hearing damage is quite possible. See the following article if interested: http://www.ciop.pl/44610

From the article:
... the A-weighted equivalent
continuous sound pressure level LAeq measured
over the duration of a single music piece, on the
stage among musicians of a concert orchestra
(wind instruments) is 83.0–106.5 dB.

Dick
Frogman wrote,

"Huh?!?!"

I said I wouldn't be surprised if most of them were deaf because of the night after night sitting and playing in orchestras with high sound pressure levels. That can't be too good for the old hearing. Maybe they wear ear plugs.
Playing in an orchestra is not likely to make you deaf--unless you're sitting BEHIND the horns, which no one does.

Joseph Curtin (name was misspelled in the article) is quite well-known and no doubt has a long waitng list. He likely needs no advertising.

The fact that the players were fooled is huge. I don't think that some people are getting this. That is the difference between this and previous tests which relied on the listeners and not the players to judge the instruments.