Listener evaluations of violins made from composites

Tim Duerinck , Geerten Verberkmoes , Claudia Fritz (1) , Marc Leman , Luc Nijs , Mathias Kersemans , Wim van Paepegem

1 IJLRDA-LAM - Lutheries - Acoustique - Musique

For centuries, wood, and more specifically spruce, has been the material of choice for violin top plates. Lately, carbon fiber instruments have entered the market. Some studies show that composite materials have potential advantages for making instruments (Damodaran A. et al. (2015)). However, no studies exist that evaluate violins made of different composite materials as judged by listeners. For this study, six prototype violins, differing only by the material of the top plate, were manufactured in a controlled laboratory setting. The six prototype violins were judged by experienced listeners in two double-blind experiments. In contrast to popular opinion that violins made from carbon have or lack a specific sound quality, the study provides insights in the diverse sounds and timbres violins from fiberreinforced polymers can create. It allows to investigate the links between the perception and the variations in material properties of the soundboards. Additionally, as neither players nor listeners are acquainted with these instruments, these results provide an interesting view on what type of qualities of violin-like sounds are preferred by listeners.

Domaines: Acoustique [physics.class-ph]

Tim Duerinck, Geerten Verberkmoes, Claudia Fritz, Marc Leman, Luc Nijs, et al.. Listener evaluations of violins made from composites. Journal of the Acoustical Society of America, 2020, 147 (4), pp.2647-2655. ⟨10.1121/10.0001159⟩. ⟨hal-02937610⟩