I didn't say they were nothing special. Those $15,000 dollar headphones sound amazing. It's that the price is way out of proportion to the quality. It would be

I didn't say they were nothing special. Those $15,000 dollar headphones sound amazing. It's that the price is way out of proportion to the quality. It would be fine if people admitted that strads are great largely because they're old and historically important, but they insist that they're superior violins. (Of course, that's still fine. Whatever.) I suspect that violinists are actually able to play to a higher standard on a strad, just because they're so thrilled to be doing so and this makes them focus more/less. This then feeds back into the idea that they sound better.