This framegrab image from video, provided by Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America, shows soloist Ilya Kaler wearing welder glasses so he can’t see the violin during a test of old and new instruments outside Paris in Sept. 2012. Ten world class soloists put old Italian violins, including multi-million dollar Stradivariuses, and newer cheaper ones to a blind scientific test. The results may seem off key to musicians and collectors, but the newer instruments won handily. Contrary to musical convention, a new scientific study found most of the violinists passed up older violins when the lights were dimmed and the musicians had to wear dark glasses. Most of them couldn’t even tell whether they were using old or violins just from the sound. The six old violins included five Stradivariuses. (AP Photo/Stefan Avalos, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America)
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