This week’s mythbusting prize goes to researcher Claudia Fritz of the Sorbonne, who led two studies, both of which revealed that despite their mystique, antique “master” violins – even Stradivari – produce no better sound quality than modern instruments.
In a piece in National Geographic Phenomena, Ed Yong walks readers through the stages of Fritz’s research, involving a number of different testing protocols, and her findings, which ultimately indicated that professional violinists found no difference in sound quality between old instruments and new.
Of course, our classically-trained kitty will tell you that her particular invisible violin sounds much better than that screeching monstrosity next door.
lolcat via Cheezburger.com
The Finch and Pea 