01-04-13: BrownsfanVery 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.
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.
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