> One is that instruments are actually designed to sound different from one another, and it's up to the player to decide what they want. So true > And there's

> One is that instruments are actually designed to sound different from one another, and it's up to the player to decide what they want. So true > And there's no practical way for an individual musician to conduct a blind test Also true. You can try to approximate. When my kid was younger, I was with them at a violin lesson and the student before had three different instruments they were auditioning for their first 4/4-size violin. So being a full-size violin, this one was to be their instrument for the next few years. The shop had let them take 3 instruments in their price range on loan for a week to audition. The teacher had the student turn their back and labeled the instruments A, B, and C, and proceeded to let the student listen to how each instrument sounded as the teacher played with a couple of different bows. We all kept notes on our favorite, but didn't tell the student yet. The student's mom took all our ballots to consult later after the student was closing in on their own choice. Over the week the student picked an instrument and had it at their next lesson. The first thing that the student played as a warm up was a 3-octave G-major scale. I said: "Ah, you picked the Dunov, that was my favorite, too." The mom looked at my like I had grown a second head, but to me the instrument's sound was very distinct from the other two. Instruments do vary a lot. They all have their own personality and it is fun to find it -- two things I miss most about kid having grown up and move out are a) listening to practice every day, and b) violin shopping.