SCIENTISTS SAYS HE'S FOUND THE KEY TO STRADIVARIUS'S SOUND

The Houston Chronicle ^ | 28 December 2006 | Eric Berger

[RockinRight]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nBAz7IZI9po

Sorry, wrong Stratovarius.

[Ramcat]

Audio anachronism alert! I haven't heard references made to Ohm's Walsh drivers in a long time. I listened to these extensively about 25 years ago.

Ohm Walsh drivers are still made today but only by custom order for a person wishing to spend $2500 or more on a pair of speakers.

I frequently listen to a pair of vintage Ohm Walsh 2s which do just fine since I'm practically tone deaf after too much Cream & Zepplin.

Anachronism? OK, I guess, I was just going back to the golden Audiophile days.

I could have made a modern day reference to a quality pair of Yamaha's but nobody ever listens (listened) to them.

I bet you miss your Fs?

[bmwcyle]

ping

[Minutemen]

SCIENTISTS SAYS HE'S FOUND THE KEY TO STRADIVARIUS'S SOUND
A violin?

[Cvengr]

I bet you miss your Fs?

Too busy playing with a G-String.

[Cvengr]

Stradivarius-....a great marketing name for the next generation iPod....

[SoCal Pubbie]

I think you're being a little unfair to old Mr. Stradivarius. He lacked the precise scientific instruments we have today to test his products. He had to devise his designs using only his eye, his ear, and his experience. No one else was able to do what he did, for hundreds of years. He raised his craft to the level of an art, where his instruments were prized above all others.

[dhuffman@awod.com]

The next Solar Summer is expected to be the most active on record. Will no one correlate that with glow-bull warning?

Either we are equal or we are not. Good people ought to be armed where they will, with wits and guns.

[Uncle George]

Arsnic was the common chemical used to prevent wood worms back then.

[LonePalm]

Good people ought to be armed where they will, with wits and guns.

Agreed. Molon Labe.

Garde la Foi, mes amis! Nous nous sommes les sauveurs de la République! Maintenant et Toujours!
(Keep the Faith, my friends! We are the saviors of the Republic! Now and Forever!)
LonePalm, le Républicain du verre cassé (The Broken Glass Republican)

[BigCinBigD]

It's the mirrors.

[doorgunner69]

Bose speakers?

Hah! As the audio guys say: "No highs, no lows, must be Bose".

[RedStateRocker]

Part of the phenomena, like that around 'Pre CBS' Fender, prewar Martin Guitars and Testore basses is that the uniqueness has become part of the definition of what 'sounds good'. To a LOT of people (including record producers, A&R reps and the general public, a guitar sounds 'good' to the degree it sounds like a 1930's D-28, etc. And musicians and dealers fuel the mystique for all sorts of reasons.
I can easily see some Babylonians in Ershaddon's day commenting that the harps these days are not as good as those made in the time of Sennacherib:-)

[Erasmus]

I had ESS AMT-1's (with the Heil Air Motion Transformers) and then bought a pair of Koss ES-9 earphones.

That, in a way, calibrated my ears for my next set of speakers, which turned out to be Walsh 4's.

[Ramcat]

I can easily see some Babylonians in Ershaddon's day commenting that the harps these days are not as good as those made in the time of Sennacherib:-)

Obviously.

[Ramcat]

That, in a way, calibrated my ears for my next set of speakers, which turned out to be Walsh 4's.

I love the way in which FREEPERS are always looking forward.
Nice.

[RobRoy]

I'm with you on that one.

I have a bunch of basses and a few guitars. I don't buy into the hype. I do have one that has a sort of crappy sound but, for the most part, the sound comes from into what I plug my bass and, most importantly, HOW I play it.

The one caveot would by my accoustic-electric bass which, because it gets a lot of it's sound from the acoustic properties of the hollow body, obviously has a MUCH different sound than all my solid bodies.

My new favorite place to buy stringed instruments is Rondomusic.net. I told a friend - who has been playing guitar ACTIVELY for decades - about it, and he bought three in a two month period. All of them were around $110 and two of them are his new favorite instruments. He likes the third but is not crazy about it.

But to get back on topic - so much of this is hype.

BTW, my daughter plays fiddle in one of my bands midnightrunband.com

[capitalist229]

I couldn't believe that much beautiful sound was coming out of those small 800 series speakers.

I finally gave up my ancient AR-3A's when I heard a set of B&W 800's five years ago.

They are the new standard of audio perfection and probably will remain so for a long time to come.

BUMP

[antiRepublicrat]

A thousandth of an inch is a thousandth of an inch there is no magic there. A curve is a curve etc. all could be replicated to the nth degree it is just a mechanical problem. it was done before it could be done again

I think what's eluded people is the sheer number of variables. Okay, you have the same exact form to the millimeter. But do you have the same stresses in the wood throughout that form? The exact same grain alignments? You have the same kind of wood. But what environment did that wood grow in? It's like how the same grape is wildly different depending on the environment and the soil, and magnify that by the possible hundred or more years old his trees were. You have the same chemical preservatives, but how were they applied? How much? Was the wood soaked in it or rubbed over and over with it?

The list of variables gets so long, and then you run up against one you can't reproduce: How do all of those variables combined change with the age of the violin? I have no doubt a Strad now sounds quite different from a new one back then.

[True-Stu]

Hey that's cool and brings up more memories for me. My past friend Albert Von Schweikert worked with ESS and Dr. Heil's stuff. I later helped Albert launch Von Schweikert Research with the VR-4 Loudspeakers. I was a contributing writer for Positive Feedback magazine and later became the hardware editor.

"I had ESS AMT-1's (with the Heil Air Motion Transformers) and then bought a pair of Koss ES-9 earphones. That, in a way, calibrated my ears for my next set of speakers, which turned out to be Walsh 4's."