3 ms·

Note that in 2010 study, the test asked the question "which of these violins would you like to take home?", not "which of these do you think is a Stradivarios?"

Note that in 2010 study, the test asked the question "which of these violins would you like to take home?", not "which of these do you think is a Stradivarios?" (see http://www.thestrad.com/cpt-latests/stradivari-loses-out-in-blind-testing-study-of-player-preferences-for-old-and-new-violins/ http://www.thestrad.com/cpt-latests/stradivari-loses-out-in-...) The follow-up study seemed to ask a similar question. So these studies tried to find out which violins are most popular among high class violin players, not (primarily) whether they were able to tell the difference. I've read elsewhere about the first study that the the participants were quite surprised that people thought they couldn't identify the Stradivarius, because they were never asked to.

vilhelm_s 10y ago
In this study they did both, they had a long session where the players where asked to rank the instruments based on how they liked them (and rate various characteristics like loudness and timbre), then at the end they had a "new or old" question: "Next they were presented with a series of violins (one at a time, in random order) and given 30 s to play each one before guessing what kind of instrument it was. If a soloist was unclear about the meaning of the question, he/she was prompted to guess whether the violin was new or old. The series consisted of (i) that player’s favorite old violin; (ii) the player’s favorite new violin; (iii) an old and a new violin the player found unsuitable; (iv) the old violin and the new violin that, in session 1, were most often included in top-four lists and that were on average most highly ranked within those lists; and (v) the old and the new violin that were most often rejected as unsuitable in session 1."
white-flame 10y ago
Another issue with the 2010 study is that the performers were not allowed to tune or adjust the Strads in any way, but could do so with the new ones, so the old violins sounded objectively worse. And yes, they could absolutely tell which was which, and that the modern ones sounded better often due to the fine tuning in the setup.

vilhelm_s 10y ago

In this study they did both, they had a long session where the players where asked to rank the instruments based on how they liked them (and rate various characteristics like loudness and timbre), then at the end they had a "new or old" question: "Next they were presented with a series of violins (one at a time, in random order) and given 30 s to play each one before guessing what kind of instrument it was. If a soloist was unclear about the meaning of the question, he/she was prompted to guess whether the violin was new or old. The series consisted of (i) that player’s favorite old violin; (ii) the player’s favorite new violin; (iii) an old and a new violin the player found unsuitable; (iv) the old violin and the new violin that, in session 1, were most often included in top-four lists and that were on average most highly ranked within those lists; and (v) the old and the new violin that were most often rejected as unsuitable in session 1."

white-flame 10y ago

Another issue with the 2010 study is that the performers were not allowed to tune or adjust the Strads in any way, but could do so with the new ones, so the old violins sounded objectively worse. And yes, they could absolutely tell which was which, and that the modern ones sounded better often due to the fine tuning in the setup.