How do I smooth out violins?

I can sympathize since I, too, have noticed that digital can be cruel to high strings. A good deal of this problem can be atributed to early digital recording techniques. I never buy a classical CD recorded earlier than the mid to late 1990's. Telarc has a long digital recording history. One can easily hear the improvement in string high sound from the mid '90's on.

Surprisingly, the addition of Bryston SST2 amplification into my system improved the sound of classical CD's greatly. James Tanner of Bryston informed me that this can be credited to new, improved transiters in the current models.

My recommendation is to buy some very recently recorded classical CD's and see if there is any improvement. The European labels (Audite, Praga, etc.)are producing some very good sounding classical music. You can sample some from the Berkshire Record Outlet at quite reasonable prices.

You might want to stay away from Sony. Too many great performances have lousy upper string sound on that label. Poor Hilary Hahn. I have heard her perform live three times. Her harsh Sony CD string sound is nothing like the beautiful tone of her live performances.

Lastly, SACD can produce a considerable improvement in high string sound over Red Book CD's. An audition might be an eye (ear?) opener.

I hope this offers some help. Good luck.

01-04-13: Brownsfan
I think a reference recording, recommended by the group as being innocent of the offending attributes has a great deal of value. If Charles1dad has a recording of violins that exhibits good coherence, lack of grain, and lack of excessive brightness in his system, and the OP finds the recording still has issues in his system, then it is system related and not an inherent fault of digital reproduction. If, on the other hand, this recording is found by the OP to be satisfactory, then he is going to have to live with the fact that he has somehow selected a bunch of bad recordings. The idea is to help the poor fellow narrow things down without running a series of megabuck experiments.

Very well said, Brownsfan, as is the rest of your post. And given that what is specifically in question is violin reproduction in the context of orchestral recordings, I think that the CD I suggested earlier would be an absolutely ideal choice for use as a reference recording.

In fact, I would suggest that those who consider the CD medium to be inherently incapable of providing high quality reproduction of orchestral music just might find themselves in a state of amazement upon hearing it.

I should add to my earlier comment, btw, that the recording engineer was the legendary Kenneth Wilkinson, with production by Charles Gerhardt.

Regards,
-- Al

01-04-13: Tarp38
I can sympathize since I, too, have noticed that digital can be cruel to high strings. A good deal of this problem can be atributed to early digital recording techniques. I never buy a classical CD recorded earlier than the mid to late 1990's. Telarc has a long digital recording history. One can easily hear the improvement in string high sound from the mid '90's on.

While I do not have any of the 1980's Telarcs on CD, I have a great many of them on LP, and IMO many of those have excellent sonics. And in the cases of those that don't, the primary reason is usually overly swimmy acoustics, which are clearly attributable to the microphone techniques and placements that were used on those particular recordings.

Try, for instance, another recording of Dvorak's "New World Symphony," Telarc DG-10053, Leonard Slatkin conducting the St. Louis Symphony, which was released in 1980. I don't think anyone would ever accuse the string sound or anything else on that recording, at least in the LP format which I have, of being strident or otherwise less than excellent. The performance, though, is not my particular cup of tea.

Regards,
-- Al

Tarp, I agree with your comments re Praga and Audite, but I am surprised by your comments regarding Hahn's Sony recordings. My ModWright Sony 5400 captures quite well the sweetness of her live performances. Anyone who thinks digital is an unmitigated disaster really needs to hear a ModWright player.

Rrog,
You did`nt understand a word I wrote.Audiophile only recordings are the opposite of what I prefer to listen to(mainstream jazz labels big and small both). You need to use a 'good' recording to determine if the problem is in fact inherent to the CD it self,what`s hard to understand about that? If all the massed string recordings sound bad in this system(even with known good recordings)) then it`s a component/system problem.If good recordings sound good in this system then the fault for bad massed strings is simply the particular'bad 'recording.

If you consider good electrical power quality a bandaid that`s your choice. ANY component will benefit from cleaner AC power. Why blame a component for bad sound if the problem is a bad recording?
Regards,