It's not a 'fetish' - it's 'History'. An old Stradivari Violin, 300 Years old, built by a near-genius-enginner, being played _Now_ is a much better experience t

It's not a 'fetish' - it's 'History'. An old Stradivari Violin, 300 Years old, built by a near-genius-enginner, being played _Now_ is a much better experience than if they would use a 3d printed clone of it. It's the original that contributes not only to sound but to the perception of the performance, because of the years that have gone by since the instruments first incarnation. Of course, if you do it in a blind test, you aswell could simulate all the previously scanned stradivari properties, but that doesn't keep the original from being superior in idea - because it's the _original_. YES, we can build quasi-stradivaris en masse now, but that doesn't keep the originals from being superior. Therefore one of the main purposes of the Stradivari Violin is to show it, and announce it as such in a performance. It's a historic thing with these instruments, not an engineering minmaxing thing.