Professional violinists still can’t distinguish a new instrument from a classic

Science : The debate continues concerning whether classic violins, such as those made by Antonio Stradivari and his contemporaries, possess unique characteristics that make them “better” instruments than new violins. A previous experiment by Claudia Fritz of Pierre and Marie Curie University in Paris and Joseph Curtin, a violinmaker from Ann Arbor, Michigan, has been criticized for not being well controlled. Now Fritz, Curtin, and their colleagues have reexamined the question. They had 10 professional violinists compare 13 new and 9 old violins in a double-blind test. They used this test to reduce the number of instruments to the 6 new and 6 old violins that were most preferred. They then had the musicians wear darkened goggles and play the violins in both a small room and an auditorium to compare them under different acoustic conditions. The violinists chose their four favorites, rated the violins in an assortment of categories, and then guessed whether the violin was new or old. The results showed that while the violinists could distinguish individual violins, they could not determine whether a violin was new or old. Overall, they appeared to prefer the new instruments.