Musical instruments and Hi-Fi systems
Last week I was visiting Harvey de Souza, leader of the St. Martin in the Fields Orchestra, and witnessed a fascinating A/B dem.
A colleague of his arrived to try out some of Harvey's collection of bows to get more body and penetration in the sound of his violin. The ensuing comparisons were an eye opener. They showed me how important the bow is in creating the voice of a violin. It made nearly as much difference to the sound as the violin itself... just like Russ Andrews and Kimber cables and accessories do in a Hi-Fi or Home Cinema system!
Just to put relative costs into perspective, bow prices start around £3,000 for a good one, to £20,000 for a really good one, to £100,000+ for one a serious professional would want to use. And you expect to hear these differences on a £5,000 Hi-Fi system?
Think on.
posted by Russ Andrews @ 1:54 PM
3 comments
3 Comments:
This seems more like an add for russ andrews and kimber products, any decent cable or accesories will make as much of a difference, though you could argue that as bows have different tonality, so do cables .
After all, what reference do we have, what is the absolute best violin bow, or for that matter audio cable ? and if all they do is change the sound of a component are they then not just tone controls ?
A violin and bow are two seperate items which contibute to the individual sound of one musician, are you saying a violin bow can be neutral and transparent with minimum influence on the sound of a violin, just like the best cable are supposed to be ?
How can we be sure when the manufacturer of our equipment uses different cable and we are told we will not hear thse differences in £5000 systems ? After all if a £5000 system cant let you hear the difference between a £3000 and a £100,000 violin bow, then who are we trying to kid by changing from a £30 cable to a £1000 cable ?
Do we have to spend another £5000 on cables, and is this really better than upgrading the electronics.
Also, how many musicians would be able to tell the difference between a £3000 and a £100,000 violin bow in a large venue, and what do you have to spend on your stereo to hear these differences ? Would you need to be trained to listen, and would a trained reviewer hear the difference on a cheaper system than the average listener.
Sounds more and more like high end snobery to me.
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You needant opt for the example of telling the difference between expensive & silly priced violin bows.
On (even moderatly priced) steel string acoustic guitars, can you tell the difference between a cedar or a spruce top? bronze or phosphor bronze strings? under saddle transducer pick-ups, open mike or sound hole fitted pick-ups? hammer on's or pull-offs? Or for non-guitar players a nice simple one, the difference between C major & G major keys?
Unless you play an instrument, you're not going to hear half the benefits of expensive equipment let alone cables. It happened by accident, that my guitar playing coincided with the same time I started buying Kimber cables, etc.. a lot of the initial infrastructure improvements to my hi-fi made a difference without the need for a trained ear, but I do think the more expensive kimber cables I've brought, have benefited from my own ability in playing & listening. The number of mistakes & other strange oddities I hear musicians playing on albums that I own, really gives me the motivation to keep on pluging-away with my own guitar playing.
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