Violin string review comparison: 27 sets, 1 piece of music
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- Опубліковано 31 лип 2024
- 0:00 Thomastik Dynamo
0:36 Thomastik Dominant
1:10 Thomastik Dominant Pro
1:44 Thomastik Infeld Red
2:19 Thomastik Vision Titanium Orchestra
2:52 Thomastik Vision Titanium Solo
3:28 Thomastik Vision Solo
4:04 Thomastik Vision
4:40 Thomastik Ti
5:15 Thomastik Rondo
5:48 Thomastik Peter Infeld
6:22 Pirastro Evah Pirazzi
6:55 Pirastro Evah Pirazzi Gold
7:30 Pirastro Passione
8:06 Pirastro Oliv
8:38 Pirastro Perpetual Cadenza
9:10 Pirastro Obligato
9:44 Pirastro Violino
10:18 Pirastro Tonica
10:53 Warchal Karneol
11:27 Warchal Amber
11:59 Warchal Timbre
12:35 D’Addario Pro Arte
13:10 Corelli Crystal
13:46 Larsen Original
14:22 Larsen Virtuoso
14:58 Larsen Tzigane
For my personal review of those sets of strings, see the blog post on violinist.com: bit.ly/27strings_review
I bought all tested sets in 2022/2023 and played them for at least three days (most sets were played for one week or longer). In January 2023, I strung my violin again with one set after the other, to record the same piece of music (the first eight bars of Bach’s Sarabande from the second partita for solo violin). Those first 12 recordings were already published on UA-cam (bit.ly/12strings) and discussed in a blog post on violinist.com (bit.ly/12strings_review). Here, I added another 15 sets of strings, recorded in April 2023 using the same procedure:
After changing to each new set of strings, I played for roughly 30 min before recording (I recorded up to four different sets per day). To get the strings in tune quickly, I played a few full strokes of the bow on each string close to the bridge (see bit.ly/string-break-in). For each new set of strings, I gently passed my bow across a cake of Cecilia A Piacere rosin twice (once up and down) and then used a toothbrush to clean the bow hairs from too much rosin (see bit.ly/brushing_bow_hair; I passed the toothbrush across the bow once).
Recordings were made in the same room, using the same violin, bow, and bow hair, and the inbuilt microphones of a Zoom H4n Pro recorder with the same recording level. I aimed to play fairly consistently (and boringly), using no vibrato at all. Other circumstances that I held as constant as possible included my position in the room and the position of the recorder. I combined the 27 recordings using Audacity but did not otherwise edit the sound in any way. I’m an amateur violinist and bought all sets with my own money, so this was a purely private research project.
A warning: you might need good headphones to hear differences among the sets of strings. The microphones were about 3 meters away from my violin - so what you hear is not the sound directly at the violin, but as it would be perceived by someone sitting in the room (which probably makes it a bit harder to hear differences in sound).
Great work, thank you for putting in the effort to compile these demonstrations.
Best test I've ever seen. Both for the number of strings and for having chosen baroque music to test. The baroque makes the best sound of the violin
Thank you!
Awesome video to get an idea on the difference in sound. :)
Thanks for your review
The ones you liked sounded the best to me. I really liked Timbre, might have to try them!
thank you so much! Bookmarked forever
Wow, thank you!
which one would you recommend if I am looking for some lower volume strings? My violin sounds harsh and loud. I tried Corelli and Violino before. Wonder if there is anything that can beat those. @@valentin_a.
all strings here dounded exactly the same to me, i might be wrong, but im curious what others think.
In your personal opinion which ones did you like the best? I know it’s rather subjective but trying so many, live some must have standout .
Thank you! Yes, I do have a favorite - see bit.ly/27strings_review
Great comparison! Thank you. Please consider including Corelli Cantiga, Alliance and Solea next time.
I have a very loud student violin, was using infeld red, now using Obligato. do you have a better recommendation?
I don’t think this is „better“, but as an inexpensive alternative you could try Corelli Crystal strings. On violinist.com I wrote they had "a warm and forgiving sound. They also provided some moderately emphasized high frequencies, and they did all that at a reduced volume, compared with the other tested sets. Again, this might change if one plays them for longer than just three days, but so far, I thought they might be a good choice for people who want to tame the sound of their violin, for example if the violin is too loud or too bright, the practice room too small, or the ears too sensitive."
@@valentin_a. thanks for replying, so sad it's hard to get corelli crystal here. here is some choices in my shopping cart .
Pirastro Violino
Pirastro Tonica
D'addario Kaplan amo
D'addario Pro arte
or should I stay obligato / infeld red ?
I did not try Kaplan Amo; of the other sets you mentioned, I liked Obligato the best.@@mavisfive
@@mavisfiveYou might get your hands on D‘addario zyex since you mentioned a few sets of the D‘addario brand. As a student I liked them a lot. Warm sound, very forgiving and long lasting. I find them similar to the Corelli crystal ones. I still use the D‘addario zyex set on my electric violin. For my master violin I prefer the Evah Pirazzi Gold. Only problem is that they don’t last very long and that’s why they become really expensive. I just bought the Dynamo and Rondo Gold to try. I’m very curious how they work on my violin.
Will you make a video with Il Canone?
I don’t think so - a comparison would be a bit unfair since in the meantime I have new bow hairs...
@@valentin_a. Who knows later, when these hairs wear out.
One that also catches my attention is Corelli Cantiga and Warchal Brilliant.
But this comparison, yours was very complete. The existence of Warchal Timbre and Thomastik Dynamo came as a surprise to me. I thought the sound of Dynamo was beautiful, I'm going to put it on my list precisely because of the comparison.
Tonica for me
As a beginner violinist student. I cant tell the difference.
I really can't hear much difference, I prefer Evah Pirazzi mainly for consistency and durability.
anybody think the overtones on the Dynamo r a bit much? I seem more to like the Infield Reds for purity of tone and precision.
Rondo, Passione and Perpetual sound the best on that violin.
My preference is for the original Larsen and the Larsen Tzigane.
At the end of the day, the Dominants are still the best sounding; however, the Dynamo sound very close. From your review it sounds like you felt the Dynamo are easier to play, which may be a good trade off, though the expense makes that hard to justify unless you really struggle to play Dominants.
The issue is, I prefer playing over changing strings and dominants never seem to last me longer than 8 weeks with nice sound, 4 additional weeks of bearable sound, until they are dead.
Never had any strings die under my fingers like those do, neither gut nor synthetic.Only Evahs come close to that short lifespan.
@@3dprintersawhiteboard401 interesting, I don't find the dominant die that quickly compared to say visions or many of the other competitors. Some of the brightness does go away over time so a fresh set is required for solo work or audition, but they remain playable for a pretty long time. I do play mostly an orchestra though, so pinch stability and playability our primary to me. I actually feeling that respect dominant lasts much longer than the vast majority of the newer synthetics.
@@joa8593 It might depend on the way we use the strings as well. I practice a lot of solo stuff as well,.which of course strains the strings (and bow hair). I also am unfortunate to have a bit of acidic sweat, which might also be a factor. I remember my parents going crazy about my Eudoxas rusting all the time. I don't think I experienced these particular issues of rusting strings in the last 10 years, but still might be a bit acidic.
I get at least three times the lifespan out of PI in comparison to Dominants for example. They start to hiss after some time as well, loosing all depth for me. The initial brilliance is not what I am talking about, this I consider "new string sound" only.
@@3dprintersawhiteboard401 I have never rusted strings, but for me I'm playing 5 hours a day at a minimum and I'm jaded about strings that claim to sound good for months. There's just strings that die gradually and strings that die suddenly.
I do know the hissing sound you describe with Dominants. Usually I'll clean them with alcohol and put up with it until I have a good chance to change them.
@@joa8593 Of course, strings always loose over time. For me I can say though, that there are huge differences between strings at which point they are too bad. Pi being one of the most lasting and Dominants one of the least lasting ones for synthetics. With (wounded) gut strings it was always about them losing the perfect fiths (I had to look up the translation, hope it's the right one) for me more than sound, with synthetic mostly sound degrading and responsiveness.
As a student I played the strings until they started to come apart, luckily those days are over :P
However, the last time I regularly got 5 hours per day into strings is quite a few years back. These days its more like 10 hours per week for me
Same as the other video you posted months ago:
i can hear no substantial variation among the various sets you claim to have switched to.
The cases are not many:
1- your instrument renders the same recorded sound indipendently from the strings you mount in it. Maybe while playing, under the ear things are different, but the recorded sound is not.
2- you are using an insufficient miking, but i don't buy this case.
3- you are going on with fooling all the listeners..... :D
Sorry that you cannot hear the differences. As I wrote in the description, you might need good headphones to hear differences in sound among the sets of strings. For example, I can easily hear differences with the Sennheiser HD800S, but not so easily with the Sony XM5 headphones. However, I can hear differences among some strings even with the loudspeakers of my iPhone; for example, between Warchal Timbre and Pirastro Obligato. In contrast, the Thomastik strings usually sound quite similar to each other (unless one has good headphones).
@@valentin_a. Other than testing and using different strings myself and in other violinist's instruments physically present, i can say for sure that differences by listening to recordings by phones or other devices are audible, and often VERY audible......
Do you want some famous examples? listen to the tests in the Fiddlerman's website, for one.......
Anyway, it seems quite impossible to me that for hearing differences i have to put on audiophile earphones. What procedure can this be?
Some differences MUST be audible in any case.
Personally, i can't hear any difference with laptop's speaker, good laptop speakers. While using Yamaha studio monitors i can hear some normal difference that occurs in recording because the player uses less or more rosin, because the player is not in the same exact position, because that day the climate is drier, etc. No eclatant real difference, as while listening to real string tests (look at the above mentioned source).
So, my ipothesis is always the same: you are conducting a psicology test with no real strings change, in order to show that musicians' ears often hear what the player wants to hear after knowing the name of the label and a price tag..... :D
Disagree, use nice headphones or nice earbuds. Very subtle but you can hear a difference in brightness and overtones.
@@Firenmage433 as i said before: if someone can't hear any important difference with a normal speaker, why not put on some Tonica, and problem solved? 😁
@@Firenmage433 , how do i need going on with explaining with concept:
if the difference is subtle even with good earphones, what's the point to use some strings or other, when playing live or recording? Is my mind on this subject not enought clear?......