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Fungus-treated Violin Outdoes Stradivarius

sciencedaily.com

11–20 of 26 posts

Re: Fungus-treated Violin Outdoes Stradivarius

#11
post #7

Worth noting that this was only a single-blind test, with a sample size of 1 violinist.

There were 5 violins, 2 of which were fungus violins, one of those in particular received a staggering 60% of the votes. Not sure what the best conclusion to draw is but it's certainly believable that one day you'll be able to get a cheap violin with incredible tone quality.

Re: Fungus-treated Violin Outdoes Stradivarius

#12
post #7

Worth noting that this was only a single-blind test, with a sample size of 1 violinist.

I still think it's interesting that, even though the violinist knew which violin he was playing, the audience liked him playing the Opus 58 violin better than playing his own Stradivarius, which he could have been subconsciously influenced to play better because of its familiarity.

Re: Fungus-treated Violin Outdoes Stradivarius

#13
post #11
post #7

Worth noting that this was only a single-blind test, with a sample size of 1 violinist.

There were 5 violins, 2 of which were fungus violins, one of those in particular received a staggering 60% of the votes. Not sure what the best conclusion to draw is but it's certainly believable that one day you'll be able to get a cheap violin with incredible tone quality.

But it's quite plausible that the performer played slightly differently on the various violins. A more robust test would include several performers, playing the different violins in arbitrary order, to rotating groups of listeners.

Re: Fungus-treated Violin Outdoes Stradivarius

#15
post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

There were 5 violins, 2 of which were fungus violins, one of those in particular received a staggering 60% of the votes. Not sure what the best conclusion to draw is but it's certainly believable that one day you'll be able to get a cheap violin with incredible tone quality.

But it's quite plausible that the performer played slightly differently on the various violins. A more robust test would include several performers, playing the different violins in arbitrary order, to rotating groups of listeners.

That would introduce more extraneous variables. Do you think that different violinists might suit different violins better to an extent that overrides that additional noise?

Re: Fungus-treated Violin Outdoes Stradivarius

#16
post #11
post #7

Worth noting that this was only a single-blind test, with a sample size of 1 violinist.

There were 5 violins, 2 of which were fungus violins, one of those in particular received a staggering 60% of the votes. Not sure what the best conclusion to draw is but it's certainly believable that one day you'll be able to get a cheap violin with incredible tone quality.

I assure that you that short of molecular self-assemblers, these fungus treated violins are not going to be cheap. They will cost well above the average for a new violin, but much, much less than a violin from a classic master.

Re: Fungus-treated Violin Outdoes Stradivarius

#17
post #7

Worth noting that this was only a single-blind test, with a sample size of 1 violinist.

I still think it's interesting that, even though the violinist knew which violin he was playing, the audience liked him playing the Opus 58 violin better than playing his own Stradivarius, which he could have been subconsciously influenced to play better because of its familiarity.

He could have been subconsciously influenced to play the Opus because of its novelty.

Re: Fungus-treated Violin Outdoes Stradivarius

#20
post #3
post #2

Fungus is the new computer. There's nothing like that feeling a beginning programmer has when he realizes that he can give the computer a few simple instructions and, in a matter of seconds, the computer does something that would take thousands of man-years of manual computation. This is why biotech is such an interesting field. If we can give fungi and bacteria simple instructions and let them execute those instruct…

I don't really see the link with computing here. The fungi changed the cell structure of the wood, chemistry and woodworking on a microscopic scale.

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