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The cheap violin in it's wildest dreams never thought it would be touched and played like that. It's going to have a Napoleon complex for the rest of its life.
@@proksenospapias9327 I am not ignorant to the history of Napoleon. What I find interesting is your offense to a comment intended to be an off handed complement. Being offended when no offense was meant is a tough way to live, especially in TH-cam.
not gonna lie, it scared me seeing a Strad sitting on a couch balanced without a case or protection. My normal practice violin is only $1500 but it never sits outside like that for more than 1 min.
Though the Strad's resonance is nothing but grand n your hands the cheeep one is tolerable, decent and should have no shame. It's just that the ear Will long for the sumptuous nourishment of the greater resonances. Thank you. This was fun.
@@willieboy8798 okay, I don't think he was trying to make you mad, but your first comment kinda took the fun out of the original comment. Also, a 69 dollar bill still doesn't exist. You do know there were other forms of currency which can be translated into the equivalence of dollars.
@@asianamericancasestudies6434 Yeah, but it's not about the price... It is a limited unique instrument you can't buy with money if it's destroyed, because Stradivarius is dead :(
@@abrakadaniel5908 There were thousands of violin makers and millions of violins produced, all unique. So what's unique about this other than people's minds of it from media?
In my 40s and out of curiosity I took a few violin lessons. Given my experience as a violinist, I was absolutely blown away by your play and interpretation of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Well done sir.
What’s weird is I couldn’t tell you exactly what the difference is between them…the cheap one is perfectly acceptable, but when he plays the strad it’s just like a breath of fresh air
I'm not a musician and while I could tell them apart, it was hard to say what exactly the difference was. I tried listening with my eyes closed and the feeling I got was that first violin was nicely played and it sounded alright but the second was how I think classical music is supposed to sound. It made me think of films about Mozart, classical concerts, powdered wigs, and minuets. Rich and full-bodied, whereas the first violin sounded flat, un-reverberating and a bit nasal, even.
Tone was richer, it had more depth and more character while the cheap violin sounded plastic, shallow, harsh, and hollow. I don’t really know how to explain it so apologies if this didn’t make sense 😅
Strad has more bass and treble almost like a scooped mid sound makes it sound like a broader range of sound resonating across more frequencies whereas the other one is very tightly focused on the midrange without much bass at all. Is it worth 10,000,000? Clearly.
The difference would be way more obvious in person. I went from a cello rental to buying a nice cello a bit over 4 months back and you might not be able to tell the difference very well over a recording. However, the nicer cello is way more resonant, meaning that it sounds more clear and far louder. But the main difference is how much easier it is to play. Its crazy how big of a leap you can make in playing ability just by getting an instrument that doesn't feel like its constantly fighting you. Hell, it feels crazy to me just thinking about how much my playing has improved in those 4-5 short months I've had it.
I could explain everything in detail but sometimes I just don´t want to think about music. The strad just gives me gossebumps when it is played. Kind of magic
Swap out the strings with higher quality ones as well as the bridge and adjust the sound post on the $69.00 violin and perform a blind sound test, and I'm sure many professional violinists would struggle to tell the difference.
@@deanjones2525 Pretty sure somebody did that and came to roughly the same conclusion you did--it was a strad vs a modern violin, and most people (both the players and the listeners, since the test was a double-blind) couldn't tell the difference.
@@astracrits4633 No actual instrument should be $69. It would have made more sense to compare a $400.00 violin to the strad, because at that price range the quality should be more than enough.
@@GarGlingT That’s partly because it’s worth the effort and expense to maintain them. Any violin is delicate; what’s important is how much effort is spent in maintaining it.
The Stradivarius sounds like two violins playing simultaneously in perfect unison compared with the basic violin. Still, I was surprised by how good the basic one sounded. Great artist.
Yeah, I thought that instruments at that price point couldn't hold a candle whatsoever to an actual professional instrument, was pleasantly surprised with this video that didn't sound absolutely horrible (and yes, I know its partly due to the fact that its being played by a professional violinist. But still, pretty impressive)
Mr Chen may be a world class soloist but his congenial candor is unique. The fact that he gives a genuine critique of both instruments *and* that he does not totally trash the $69 one in summation demonstrates he's also an outstanding gentleman. Bravissimo!
The difference between the two violins is obviously night and day, but this also really demonstrates that the way a violin sounds is about 90% the player and 10% the instrument.
I heard an 8th grade clarinet student at a competition who was assumed by a judge to be playing on a wooden clarinet because their tone was so good. It was a beginner plastic one but the student had grown into (and could afford) high quality reeds.
@@TheNthomas1999 Yes, to be honest, Stradivarius doesn't sound that good for 10 million dollar instrument. Violin is fiendishly difficult instrument to play at high level and it's 99% player and 1% instrument
Boxmining Really depends if Ray lives by himself. I’m pretty sure Ray has enough experience as a violinist to know to check the sofa when he sits down...
I'd say hearing the 69 $ violin being played then hearing the strad was like seeing the world around and thinking "it looks nice ", then an eye doctor tell you you need glasses to see clearly, you put them on, expecting nothing because you don't think you're missing out on something, and suddenly there are sparkles in your eyes and a lump in your throat because now there are leaves on the trees and so many more details and colors and it all looks amazing.
@@lordsiomai Comparing the two, yes the strad was better in this case. But there are videos out there that like NPR did a blind test between a normal expensive violin that someone in a first-chair orchestra would have vs. a strad and there isn't too much of a difference.
All the violins I've ever heard always sound almost exactly like the $69 one. The $10,000,000 Stradivarius violin truly sounds amazing, and the warmth, power, and stability, especially in the lower register, is unrivaled.
Shut up everyone , cheap violins was a miracle in my life , I couldn't afford expensive ones when I was growing up , it helped me to learn violin and now I am professional , I'm happy that there are cheap violins
Im so happy for you! Im glad you were able to work yourself up, despite not being able to afford an expensive violin. I myself am very interested in playing the violin, and I always have been, but neither my family nor I are able to spend large amounts on things that are 'optional' to have. Im glad to see that you dont have to be excessively rich to learn a new skill.
That was Ray's whole point at the end - cheap violins are fine for learning the basics on, but as you get better you really need to upgrade your instrument.
All instruments have that a-ha moment. I still remember when I got my professional model oboe. It was like “what have I been playing all these years?” The difference in warmth and clarity was night and day.
Yes, i agree. In my own life. i heard the differences instantly, the first time I played my Martin D-28 guitar fmv 2k+ USD vs. my no brand starter Aria adult instrument (MIK)fmv 170 USD which i had bought 13 years earlier . The bottom line was the Martin guitar was " warmer" and more resonant. I have had it for 17 years now and it has gotten better with age.
@@daviddemar8749 Generally, that's true, David. However, back in 2000 I bought a $750 Carvin acoustic guitar (MIK) with Rosewood back & sides/Sitka spruce top and it is so well made that I have put it up against $3000-4000 Martins and Gibsons and it holds its own very well. It has all of the richness, warmth, and lusciousness of the other two. I don't know, maybe I just happened to get a really exceptionally well made guitar.
@@beatlesrgear Im happy for you. Apparently you lucked out. 😊 Imho anything that is a motivator that can get any guitar player to practice/play more is just fine- assuming it's not something that undercuts a person's family or professional or financial responsibilities. Ultimately whether you are a hobbyist guitarist like me or a professional like Eric Clapton it's what you do with your fingers and hands when you're playing and how you live your life when you're not playing that matters.
It just doesn't sound good though. It sounds like a Walmart violin. Not trying to be rude but it is quite tinny, no depth, and just bad. Would have been much better to compare a modern 2-5k violin because even then there would have been a notable difference just much less.
@obzen while the Stradivarius does sound more resonant with a deeper tone/more body in the low-mids, it's not a $10,000,000 tone... You don't understand. Once the violin is Strad, it is very expensive, even if it sounds bad or if damaged / unplayable. Ray's Strad sounds reasonably good, but it is not anything on the level of the best Strads from golden period. His strad is 1735 whed Stradivari was old and on decline. Golden period was 1700-1725. But even 1735 Strad is far more expensive then - let's say very good Guadagnini (Julia Fisher plays Guadagnini for example) and average Guadagnini is much more expensive then outstanding Vuillaume (Hilary Hahn plays Vuillaume for example) which has nothing to do with the quality of the sound of these instruments. I suppose Hilary's Vuillaume can eat any Stradivarius violin for a dinner except few super good ones. Frankly, you need to learn a lot about violins. It is not as simple as it looks and more expensive instrument doesn't mean better sound quality, handling, response etc. Sometimes the corelation exists. The best violin in the world is probably Paganini's Canone, which is the most expensive violin without any doubts. But it is not a Strad. It is Guarneri. The price tag is infinity, money can't buy it. The second best violin in the world is probably Spivakov's Carlo Giuseppe Testore violin made in 1708. Just my opinion. The third is probably another Guarneri, the David 1749, ex Heifetz. I don't know how many Strad's are in top ten, but at least three or four. All of those instrument are far much better then Ray's Strad and as for as Carlo Giuseppe Testore, he sells for $100.000 or so.
Facts. I am no connoisseur but yes the differences so Apparent from the beginning oh, but I definitely cheap violin good until everything started to get more difficult
This really shows that a really cheap violin is all you need if you are a beginner or casual player. There are people who think they need to have an expensive instrument but in all likelihood will never play the complex melodies that really bring out the difference in quality between a cheap mass-produced and an expensive hand-crafted violin. And above all this shows that the player is always more important than the instrument. A good violinist is going to sound good even on a cheap violin.
To get the basic mechanics down you don’t have to spend a fortune but if the kid is serious, you can discourage them fast if you don’t or can’t upgrade when they need it.
Strads have been taken apart and reassembled/tweaked for over 300 years. Same with most old violins. You can break open a violin, clean it up and glue it back together, and put some varnish and other things without damaging the instrument.
Whilst the Strad obviously has a richer and warmer sound, I was really impressed by the $69 violin. It was only at the super advanced level did its shortcomings become really obvious. No doubt that has something to do with the extraordinary skill and technique of Ray Chen.
Yeah good point that a cheap instrument can’t handle complex technical pieces because of how shoddy it is made to be but to be honest those who buy those kinds of instruments are not going to be using it to ply taxing stuff that a strad player is going to anyaay
I've been wanting to learn violin and the prices involved scared me off. Listening to Ray throw mountains of complexity at the cheap violin and it still keeping up moderately well convinced me to add it to my Amazon wishlist.
Ray is cheating, this is NOT $69 violin out of the box. Decent new blank violin bridge is wort $6 and more. Setup the bridge correctly is worth $25 at least. Adjusting soundpost is another $25. I'm not sure about the strings, they seems to be cheap steel core, but not the cheapest ones. I think they are worth $10 a set or more. So it is $69 violin with $66 upgrade so the price was doubled just -just to be able to cross the strings and play in higher positions and produce very bad sound, even in Ray's hands :)
It was fascinating to hear how well Ray made a $69 violin sound - albeit with more effort. What might be more interesting is comparing the Strad with a modern violin by a first class luthier- something in the $50K price range. Then the question would be: does an excellent modern violin compare with an excellent Strad..
Sadly, it's been pretty much proven by double blind tests that modern quality instruments are virtually indistinguishable with Strads and Guarnieris. I was hoping the Strad would be better. Maybe the musician just rises to the majesty of a 300 year old historical artifact.
Does, but, IMO not as "complex". And I swear there's something about the wood or the way they were treating the wood back then but it's like the older strings seem to have more resonance, and, I think, character is the term.
I cant remember what it's called, but Two-Set have a video in which they do more or less that (though not with modern instruments - one was an 18th. century Lupot, I remember). It's very interesting.
The biggest difference is felt by the musician or someone who is a professional listener. For the average listener, there is not much difference. The result is that you are really a skilled musician. Well done, it's really admirable.
As a non-violinist, the $69 one seemed to “ring” or produce a slight overtone that made the notes sound….thin. Thin is the word that comes to mind. The Strat sounds full, rich and warm. No competing overtones from string to string.
I think "thin" is a good description, for some reason that's the word that comes to mind for me too. I'm not a violinist either, although I learned for a few years as a child/teenager. (Sadly gave it up as a confused teenager with undiagnosed ADHD).
To me, the Strad is the one that sounds thin. The $69 Violin sounded much heavier and cloudier than the Strad. Personally, I liked the $69 violin better.
@@Kateyangyuqing you're probably thinking about timbre. The less expensive violin sounds reedy - or has less of 'body,' sounds shrill in comparison to the more expensive one.
It's crazy to me that we, the general public, get to hear such a beautiful and historic instrument being played so expertly by such an amazing artist in such a casual setting, with commentary from the artist. Thank you Ray, for helping make the arts more accessible to us.
My eight year old son watched one of your videos and has since become obsessed with the violin!!!! ❤ He's getting one for his birthday next month! Thank you for inspiring a love of music!
I'll be honest - that $70 violin seems to work very well for the money. For a first violin, I'd pick that right up. That fact that it actually works for that price is amazing. This is great ad for Glary.
I hate to disappoint you, but the reason it seems to work well is entirely because of the guy who is playing it. Cheap instruments are way harder to learn on.
@@Lily-wd7dz so the strad would sound good in the hands of a bad musician? I agree that it's easier to learn on a better instrument, I'm still going to give Glary props for producing a usable beginner instrument for $70.
@@JSchroederee actually, kinda. Obviously there's a limit to how good a bad musician can sound, but better instruments tend to be easier to get a good sound out of.
Setting up a cheap violin requires expert knowledge though. My Amazon violin…didn’t come with a bridge in a usable state. No notches for strings, shape wasn’t quite right, etc. TH-cam tutorials and lots of time wasted to try to sand away bits of the bridge. And trying to tune. However, give me a Strad and I’ll still sound terrible, lol.
When you played the first notes of "Mary has a little lamb" on the Strad, I swear I almost, well... I almost had a bodily reaction that I have generally only experienced with my wife! It was incredible. I have heard recordings of Stradivari' before, but to hear it directly after a beginner instrument, and in such a simple way, I for the first time in my life could well and truly say that I UNDERSTAND.
The Stradivarius is beyond magnificent! It responds so well to the player's dynamics, attacks of the notes it is "alive" and rich. Notice how in the hands of this master violinist the $69 violin sounds great -- until you hear the Strad. It is true that a master musician can make a junker sound great. But then listen to the Strad. WOW!!
You are getting too amped. Strad costs $10 million simply because it's in demand from rich people as investment. Stradivarious is status symbol to own like gucci bags or some fine art piece for the rich, even if they don't play violin or even enjoy violin music.
@@nobodyspecial4702 As I said/implied in my previous comments, a lesser instrument in the hands of a master will sound wonderful. To your point, this would be even more so with a modern high end instrument.
10:15 thanks a lot for saying that publicly! Many players won't own up to the psychological aspect of play testing and the perception of the instrument based on name and price.
I just subscribed & clicked the notification bell - GREAT VIDEO. No matter which one you played, they both sounded good relative to what it was so it proves there’s a quality instrument for everyone’s budget and they can maximize the output if they maximize the input. Keep up the great work as I enjoy the rest of your videos.
A good way to demonstrate how huge the difference actually is, would probably be in a concert hall, recording from row 12... The strad can fill the whole hall, the cheap violin would be barely heard from more than a couple of rows away. A small room camouflages that a bit.
To be honest, I was impressed that the $69 violin didn't just fall apart while he was playing it. Equipment at that quality level for any hobby or activity really isn't meant to function properly and only serves to fool beginners due to a passing resemblance to higher quality equipment. I ride horses and all the gear I've seen at that price point that comes in kits like this will either fall apart, get you killed or both, so colour me impressed that it actually sounded decent and didn't crumble.
@@ArtGirl82 I saw a saddle on wish for 69$ and I was like wait what. My saddle cost me an arm and a leg xD no way that a saddle for 69$ will be in any way usable 🤣
One thing you said is very reminiscent of what I have often said: “I judge a violin according to the amount of work I have to expend to get the sound I want.” I find that I can pull a good sound out of most any instrument. But some of them really make me work for it. Nice video! You play beautifully!
Agreed. If I really try I can make a plastic instrument sing, but I feel like you can sense the tension. When I play on a wooden instrument it just resonates better. You can tell the difference a lot better when you're farther away. I play the clarinet btw.
You can hear the difference right from the beginning. The Stadt's reverberation sounds like it gives Ray more colors and variations of the articulations to play with. The $69 was much drier, but I was surprised that it sounded as good as it did-up until the intermediate/advanced level...which shows he's a really good violinist. I'm curious how a Stradt compares to a professional orchestral violin...even up to $10k that's a fraction of the cost of a rare stringed instrument.
@@tomzhang8675 Definitely all the difference is in the player! But there is also a marked difference between the two violins. As a great player, he made both of them sound superb. But the Strad sounded better, hands down, and a significant difference would be perceptible with your eyes closed and without the name and price known. BUT there are modern violins that sound just as good, if not better, than Strads and cost less than a hundredth of the price! Strads are bought as an investment in an art piece, not just as instruments for a star violinist. It's an art piece that you can use as your concert instrument AND it helps your profile to be known as a "Strad player & owner"! But if you just want a beautiful instrument, it's absolutely not necessary (or advisable) to spend $10 mil when you could spend $50k. Plus, he also said the $69 violin was much harder and less pleasant to play.
I'm not a violinist, but have been playing guitar for over fifty years. Not qualified to give an opinion on violins, but I do know that certain acoustic guitars that are at least 60 or 70 years old have a resonance and beauty of sound which you cannot get from any new handmade instrument. Such as a 1920s D-28 Martin acoustic. That being said, I really did enjoy the performance during the comparison. Absolutely brilliant! Gifted musician!
Also worth mentioning is that the $69 violin is newly made and the Strad is almost 300 years old, and wood can mature and change over time, so that adds to the difference in quality of these instruments too. But very fascinating to watch this comparison! :)
Being played makes a difference too. My 4 year old decent quality acoustic guitar has been played for an average of a couple of hours a days since I got it and it definitely sounds much better now than when it was new. I suspect the vibrations when played will similarly affect a violin body too. The Strad might have well over 100,000 hours of playing time since it was made,
You should compare these to like an intermediate student instrument--mine is about $8k. I'd like to see how an instrument that isn't the best of the best but still made by a luthier who knows what they're doing compares to a Strad.
Likely that 8k intermediate would be easier to play the difficult pieces than the cheapie was,he wouldn't have to struggle and he could shape the music easier, but likely it would hit limits in the really advanced stuff and overall would not have the resonance of the strad. My son's intermediate instrument that lasted until he hit late high school was an old french model from a named maker in the Mirecourt school, and it had a beautiful sound but was difficult to play in really complex concertos like the Tchaikovsky,could not handle it well. The other fallacy is that an instrument like a strad is easier to play, and that isn't true,being old they require adapting to them,too,violinists claim they have arguments with their instrument at times,and it usually wins:). I think playing twinkle twinkle the difference wouldn't be noticeable, the devil's troll and the like you would hear it,even if less glaring than the 69 buck instrument.
i'm not a violinist, though i've followed twoset since 2020 so i've seen a good bit of violin stuff, so up until the advanced section they didn't sound too far apart to me. and then advanced/super-advanced parts... and holy guacamole, the strad SHONE. gorgeously rich, warm sound
The Strad looks so glorious... visually the richness of the quality of the wood is immaculate. How lucky to be able to hold one let alone play it! The tonal quality of the Strad is warm and melts like butter.
You could definitely hear the difference. But what surprised me most was that for only $69, you can get a violin that sounds pretty decent. I would have thought that a beginner’s violin would run in the hundreds.
@@Kateyangyuqing thats why when I was into guitars I hated the tonewood debate. Its not about the wood its about the quality of the electronics and the player. Same with violins. Its about the strings and player. A strad is a status symbol like air Jordan's.
@@violinfanatickamraz1403 mate you do not know what you are on about. The strings are important but the wooden body is responsible of most of the overtones and projection.
There is a massive difference but surprisingly, the $69 instrument sounds pretty good! Also, your playing style is a lot less aggressive on the Strad, which I actually kinda like.
@Eri I kinda like it though, the Symphonie Espagnole, controversially, I think sounds better on the cheap instrument. The Strad sounds almost too “pretty” for the piece. When playing Bach and Tchaikovsky though, of course the Strad would sound better!
Honestly, you make the cheap one sound good, but there's a fuller sound with the Strad, it has a larger sound profile. That last piece with the Strad melted my face, thanks so much.
Ah, well I would probably go with something around 75-150€ for strings 😂 Good strings are reaaaally expensive And well, the bow is probably a few hundred more as well
Would be great to see a video of Ray playing different violins blindfolded and trying to identify which one is the Strad. Of course the violins would have to be very good quality ones in order to be a fair comparison (ok ok, you can throw in a cheap one just for kicks), but would be interesting to see if he can identify the strad among high quality violins without looking at them, just based on their sound and feel while playing.
Goes to show, that a master can use anything at all. TBH, at least through YT, I was only able to hear significant differences with the advanced and super advanced levels. And as Ray mentioned, it seemed less a matter of sound quality, more a build quality. He should do a blind comparison, at least for the audience. (Yea, I know this is 4 year old vid...)
@4:20, I noticed how much effort he was putting into the piece of music and the violin itself. I could see he was really giving it everything he had to get the sound quality there. This was before the end of the section where he talked about how hard it was for him to get the instrument to respond to him. And then, the Strad.... How nice......
Not even listening with headphones and I can hear that the Strad has a much fuller sound but the difference is less obvious when you played the beginner level pieces. Great video 👍
The difference was stunning, even on my limited PC speakers it was so obvious. Must have been a blast to hear it live. Thank's a lot for the experiance.
In the hands of a master either can sound great, but the cheap one is much more difficult to play. A beginner starting with an extremely cheap instrument may become discouraged because their beginner skill can't get inspiring sounds out of it. A well chosen $300 violin from a good production line seems wiser to start with than a $69 violin from the most rushed process and bottom of the barrel wood.
Better yet, rent an instrument until you are sure you want to play. That way you know the place you are getting it from has set it up properly and its a decent instrument. You will have spent less money if you end up not following through, and many places let you put money spent on your rental towards buying a new instrument down the line.
I think that something that many people listening to comparisons like this doesn't take into account, is the quality of the recording microphone and the speaker or headphones they are listening through. I have to admit that I usually have a hard time hearing that big of a difference, and I think it would be a whole different story if I had been sitting in the same room when Ray played.
Yes, the Stradivarius wins hands down (especially on the advanced pieces), but what impressed me the most was how good this guy can make a $69 violin sound!
Great demonstration Ray. Now, I'm absolutely not a musician or a scientist; I just enjoy good music. To me the Strad seemed to maintain previous notes into the following notes, thereby creating a flow rather than a start-stop series of notes. That leads me to believe the Strad is capable of sustaining multiple resonances simultaneously.
Even on an iPad there is a significant difference in the sound I’m hearing from the Strand versus the $69 violin. Of course you’re playing is magnificent which is also a factor. Wonderful video.
This is what i feel $69 Violin is like a Man who tell a story without emotion, so plan and flat $10.000.000 is like Morgan Freeman tell a story. so Rich and Warm straight to my soul
I don't feel they are that much different. Just one sounds brighter and one sounds darker. New wood and old wood. It makes bigger difference if you comparing playing on the street and the concert hall. The 69 bucks sounds better in the concert hall than the Strad on the street.
Mika Zidar there’s a huge difference! If you can’t tell that much from this video, then you’re just the type of person that buys a car to just get from point A to point B.
Interesting video. When I started with the violin as an adult I had a very simple one in the beginning (but more expensive than $69...). After a year I felt that this instrument was not at all sufficient. I went to a violin-maker, tested several violins and when I took a specific one, just played an open string... this was an undescribable experience! Like a resonance that went through my whole body and heart, like an individual voice that touched me deeply. Immedietely I knew I had to buy this one. (Which was not at all a Stradivarius but still not a bad one.) It sounds warm and rich. I didn't like the background-music in the beginning and at the end of your video.
As the son of two professional violinists, and having grown up with violin practice in my house all my life, I have to say I think you did a great job extracting what you did out of that cheap ‘instrument’ …really well done
I thought he was talking about "Air" (on the G string), the sublime Bach piece. I wish he had played that on both violins. I wonder what grade it would be given. It's probably intermediate level in terms of technical difficulty (or maybe similar to "Meditation de Thais" which was intermediate-advanced), but extremely difficult to really make the violin sing it the way you know it's supposed to sound...
@@PumilateVFX That's horseshit. This is all like confirmation bias or some other psychological crap; if you'd heard this man (without seeing what he was playing) perform a whole concerto with a $69 violin, it still would've sounded absolutely wonderful to you or anyone. Any other notion is pure mental scotoma, potentially even snobbery.
Well... The cheap violin still sounds fantastic in the hands of a good player such as Ray here, but there is definitely a difference between the two violins. It's really not confirmation bias. You could close your eyes and not hear "Strad" and you'd definitely tell that one violin sounds better than the other. The Strad has a deeper, warmer, more mellow, rich sound - compared to the "thin", shrill, dry, almost tinny sort of sound the cheaper one gives. Not sure if these words are what you would use but they're what comes to mind for me anyways. It's hard to describe sound!! Ray indeed makes the cheap violin sound incredible - but the Strad sounds /even better/. Not to mention, he said that the cheaper one was much harder to play. That said, you don't need to spend $10 million; you can get the best of the best among modern violins for less than $100k that sounds just as good as the Strad - and perhaps even better! Strads are not just a professional's tool; they're primarily an art investment that can also be used as a professional's tool (that also comes with a little boost to the player's reputation in being associated with the name Stradivarius)!
@@PumilateVFX Could be the headphones/speakers even. I'm wearing pretty decent headphones so you can easily hear the difference definitely beyond the possibility of confirmation bias - even if you had never heard a violin in your life I'm sure you could tell the difference.
the talent of the violinist means that you can play a "basic" violin magnificently... and the price difference is not as great a distance as the sound produced, by the excellence of your playing... well done for this video...!!
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ice cream all day, everyday
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Greetings from Singapore. Its 10 at night and im watching RayChen yoohoo
Thanks for the comparison. Been trying to decide between these two violins for a while. It was close but I'm gonna go with the $10,000,000 one.
Same, tho I’m concerned the price of Strads will go up now the cat is out of the bag and everything
@@imabugnow 🤣👍
Can you afford it? That's the question.
@@user-qu6xp3jq4c that's exactly what the joke is about
😂😂😂😂
The cheap violin in it's wildest dreams never thought it would be touched and played like that. It's going to have a Napoleon complex for the rest of its life.
yeah 😂
"Touched and played like that"
That violin probably had a cigarette after they were done
There;s no such thing as a Napoleon Complex. Please stop using this phrase. It's ignorant and offensive.
@@proksenospapias9327 I am not ignorant to the history of Napoleon. What I find interesting is your offense to a comment intended to be an off handed complement. Being offended when no offense was meant is a tough way to live, especially in TH-cam.
I love how when he's playing one violin, the other one patiently waits on the couch...
Idk why but I laughed hard at this comment
@@auggiemp4 maybe it is bcuz of his profile pic and name ..lol😂😂😂
not gonna lie, it scared me seeing a Strad sitting on a couch balanced without a case or protection. My normal practice violin is only $1500 but it never sits outside like that for more than 1 min.
Though the Strad's resonance is nothing but grand n your hands the cheeep one is tolerable, decent and should have no shame. It's just that the ear Will long for the sumptuous nourishment of the greater resonances. Thank you. This was fun.
Hahahahaha..You need help😂😂😂😂😂
Dude you ARE worth $10,000,000! You made them both sounded great!!
Ray: strad has better quality, and warmth and better sound
Me with my 2$ headphones from Japan:
Yes
The sound exactly the same from my phone speaker lmao. Maybe it's just my ears...
@@pdorism nop, its just ur cheap speakers
in person their would be a much bigger sound difference than you can hear through even really good headphones.
Supersonic Typist I know. Obviously the pros don’t play on *$69* violins
You can very much hear a difference. The Strad even has better dynamics.
He really doesn't make the 69 dollar violin sound all that cheap.
Sounds about 10,000,000 times better than me
I can do the opposite to the Strad 👹
Wear good headphones, you can easily hear the difference. The Stradi is much richer, while the 69 lmao violin sounds flat and thin.
Nice
@@rykehuss3435 Not $9999931 worth of difference.
Antonio Stradivari seeing this:
"Wait, but I sold this instrument for just $69... 300 years ago?"
@@willieboy8798 consider learning what a joke is, some people....
@@willieboy8798 okay, I don't think he was trying to make you mad, but your first comment kinda took the fun out of the original comment. Also, a 69 dollar bill still doesn't exist. You do know there were other forms of currency which can be translated into the equivalence of dollars.
@@willieboy8798 🤨😐🙂😋
Oh ok lol
@@willieboy8798 dont be a douche
This is ridiculous, he's trolling
Stunning how you were able to make the 69 dollar violin sound so good. Amazing player.
I would be scared to even be in the same room with a 10.000.000$ instrument
These are all covered by insurance of the loaning organization... Which means if it's completely destroyed, they get $10,000,000 in cash
@@asianamericancasestudies6434 Yeah, but it's not about the price... It is a limited unique instrument you can't buy with money if it's destroyed, because Stradivarius is dead :(
Yes but if your child was freezing to death and it was all you had for fire wood ...would ya?
@@abrakadaniel5908 There were thousands of violin makers and millions of violins produced, all unique. So what's unique about this other than people's minds of it from media?
@@asianamericancasestudies6434 WHAT
THE
HECK A STRAD SOUNDS BETTER
Moral Lesson: You don't need a 10m-dollar violin, you need a 10m-dollar talent.
IT'S CALLED PRACTICE
@@simyou1219 ling-Ling approved! 40 hrs everyday now go practice!
The one you call “talent” most of the time is practice and passion
@@White.cat_ Without talent that translates in mediocrity.
You don't need either. Any one can make beautiful music using cheapest violin with some practice.
Conclusion: You don't need a better instrument, you need a better violinist.
Brett and eddy mentioned its like 80% player for a violin
@@emilyscloset2648 wise words!
It is amazing how even the poor instrument sounds with him
…which is undoubtedly why I could make a $10,000,000 Strad sound just like a $69 Glarry.
That's for so many instruments.
"only bad musicians blame their instruments."
In my 40s and out of curiosity I took a few violin lessons. Given my experience as a violinist, I was absolutely blown away by your play and interpretation of “Twinkle Twinkle Little Star.” Well done sir.
What’s weird is I couldn’t tell you exactly what the difference is between them…the cheap one is perfectly acceptable, but when he plays the strad it’s just like a breath of fresh air
I'm not a musician and while I could tell them apart, it was hard to say what exactly the difference was. I tried listening with my eyes closed and the feeling I got was that first violin was nicely played and it sounded alright but the second was how I think classical music is supposed to sound. It made me think of films about Mozart, classical concerts, powdered wigs, and minuets. Rich and full-bodied, whereas the first violin sounded flat, un-reverberating and a bit nasal, even.
Tone was richer, it had more depth and more character while the cheap violin sounded plastic, shallow, harsh, and hollow. I don’t really know how to explain it so apologies if this didn’t make sense 😅
Strad has more bass and treble almost like a scooped mid sound makes it sound like a broader range of sound resonating across more frequencies whereas the other one is very tightly focused on the midrange without much bass at all. Is it worth 10,000,000? Clearly.
The difference would be way more obvious in person. I went from a cello rental to buying a nice cello a bit over 4 months back and you might not be able to tell the difference very well over a recording. However, the nicer cello is way more resonant, meaning that it sounds more clear and far louder. But the main difference is how much easier it is to play. Its crazy how big of a leap you can make in playing ability just by getting an instrument that doesn't feel like its constantly fighting you. Hell, it feels crazy to me just thinking about how much my playing has improved in those 4-5 short months I've had it.
I could explain everything in detail but sometimes I just don´t want to think about music. The strad just gives me gossebumps when it is played. Kind of magic
"If you still can't hear the difference, that's because I'm worth $10mil." - I mean... he's not wrong.... I'm sure he can make any instrument sing.
It is about how last the wood is, 69 dollar will dead soon, but strad is forever.
Swap out the strings with higher quality ones as well as the bridge and adjust the sound post on the $69.00 violin and perform a blind sound test, and I'm sure many professional violinists would struggle to tell the difference.
@@deanjones2525 Pretty sure somebody did that and came to roughly the same conclusion you did--it was a strad vs a modern violin, and most people (both the players and the listeners, since the test was a double-blind) couldn't tell the difference.
@@astracrits4633 No actual instrument should be $69. It would have made more sense to compare a $400.00 violin to the strad, because at that price range the quality should be more than enough.
@@GarGlingT That’s partly because it’s worth the effort and expense to maintain them. Any violin is delicate; what’s important is how much effort is spent in maintaining it.
The Stradivarius sounds like two violins playing simultaneously in perfect unison compared with the basic violin. Still, I was surprised by how good the basic one sounded. Great artist.
Yeah, I thought that instruments at that price point couldn't hold a candle whatsoever to an actual professional instrument, was pleasantly surprised with this video that didn't sound absolutely horrible (and yes, I know its partly due to the fact that its being played by a professional violinist. But still, pretty impressive)
Wow, that was a good description of the sound of the Stradivarius. Well said.
Mr Chen may be a world class soloist but his congenial candor is unique. The fact that he gives a genuine critique of both instruments *and* that he does not totally trash the $69 one in summation demonstrates he's also an outstanding gentleman.
Bravissimo!
The difference between the two violins is obviously night and day, but this also really demonstrates that the way a violin sounds is about 90% the player and 10% the instrument.
I heard an 8th grade clarinet student at a competition who was assumed by a judge to be playing on a wooden clarinet because their tone was so good. It was a beginner plastic one but the student had grown into (and could afford) high quality reeds.
Agreed! 👍
I can't believe how good the 69 dollar violin sounds in all honesty
@@TheNthomas1999 Yes, to be honest, Stradivarius doesn't sound that good for 10 million dollar instrument. Violin is fiendishly difficult instrument to play at high level and it's 99% player and 1% instrument
@@TheNthomas1999 I couldn't believe that a $69 violin even exists!
I have anxiety looking at the $10 Million dollar violin sitting on that couch. What if someone sits on it.
Coffin Dance :)
Boxmining Really depends if Ray lives by himself. I’m pretty sure Ray has enough experience as a violinist to know to check the sofa when he sits down...
Imagine it with Glarry violin strings.
Or a dog or cat lie down on it 😅
same
I'd say hearing the 69 $ violin being played then hearing the strad was like seeing the world around and thinking "it looks nice ", then an eye doctor tell you you need glasses to see clearly, you put them on, expecting nothing because you don't think you're missing out on something, and suddenly there are sparkles in your eyes and a lump in your throat because now there are leaves on the trees and so many more details and colors and it all looks amazing.
Exactly
Very well said. The $69was alright, sufficient, but the strad is divine
Relatable
@@lordsiomai Comparing the two, yes the strad was better in this case. But there are videos out there that like NPR did a blind test between a normal expensive violin that someone in a first-chair orchestra would have vs. a strad and there isn't too much of a difference.
All the violins I've ever heard always sound almost exactly like the $69 one. The $10,000,000 Stradivarius violin truly sounds amazing, and the warmth, power, and stability, especially in the lower register, is unrivaled.
How so? what makes it sound "warm"er? If youre using purely sound words?
Shut up everyone , cheap violins was a miracle in my life , I couldn't afford expensive ones when I was growing up , it helped me to learn violin and now I am professional , I'm happy that there are cheap violins
Im so happy for you! Im glad you were able to work yourself up, despite not being able to afford an expensive violin. I myself am very interested in playing the violin, and I always have been, but neither my family nor I are able to spend large amounts on things that are 'optional' to have. Im glad to see that you dont have to be excessively rich to learn a new skill.
@@ireallydontcare443backoff5 exactly
prove that you are pro
That was Ray's whole point at the end - cheap violins are fine for learning the basics on, but as you get better you really need to upgrade your instrument.
Any way to learn the violin online ? I am considering buying a violin ( cheap one too ) and would like to learn how to play it. Thanks
Me who is a pianist, but knows all the pieces Ray played: Twoset had taught me well
Me, an amateur violinist who still doesn't know most of them: *sounds of shame*
Yeah I learned a lot from twoset! I didn’t know the name of the super-advanced piece, the one before the paganiniana...
@@MarcelloACG Hello It’s Brett’s Tchaikovsky 😂 3rd movement
🤝
proove it
All instruments have that a-ha moment. I still remember when I got my professional model oboe. It was like “what have I been playing all these years?” The difference in warmth and clarity was night and day.
Yes, i agree. In my own life. i heard the differences instantly, the first time I played my Martin D-28 guitar fmv 2k+ USD vs. my no brand starter Aria adult instrument (MIK)fmv 170 USD which i had bought 13 years earlier . The bottom line was the Martin guitar was " warmer" and more resonant. I have had it for 17 years now and it has gotten better with age.
@@daviddemar8749 Generally, that's true, David. However, back in 2000 I bought a $750 Carvin acoustic guitar (MIK) with Rosewood back & sides/Sitka spruce top and it is so well made that I have put it up against $3000-4000 Martins and Gibsons and it holds its own very well.
It has all of the richness, warmth, and lusciousness of the other two. I don't know, maybe I just happened to get a really exceptionally well made guitar.
@@beatlesrgear
Im happy for you. Apparently you lucked out. 😊 Imho anything that is a motivator that can get any guitar player to practice/play more is just fine- assuming it's not something that undercuts a person's family or professional or financial responsibilities. Ultimately whether you are a hobbyist guitarist like me or a professional like Eric Clapton it's what you do with your fingers and hands when you're playing and how you live your life when you're not playing that matters.
The strad just makes me want to cry! It has such a beautiful tone, it does all the frequencies so well.
The 10,000,000 strad sitting on coach behind. Off screen: 12 body guards.
there is literally only 500 of the strad violins left on this planet so you might as well
@@awasteoftime4329 that's more than half considering he made over 900
Hank should be the one showing off his violin
Yes, yes and yesssssssssss!!!!!
Hank should be playing the 69
Yeah, let Hank out of the basement! Even if he spits a little when he talks
Just wanted it to be a fair test... Hank isn't very good at the violin. Maybe next time I can transfer some of my violin powers to him.
Ray Chen Hank should try to play a strad
There certainly is a huge difference. But he still makes the cheap violin sound good.
It just doesn't sound good though. It sounds like a Walmart violin. Not trying to be rude but it is quite tinny, no depth, and just bad. Would have been much better to compare a modern 2-5k violin because even then there would have been a notable difference just much less.
As someone who does not play, I can hear no difference. Wild
True
@obzen while the Stradivarius does sound more resonant with a deeper tone/more body in the low-mids, it's not a $10,000,000 tone... You don't understand. Once the violin is Strad, it is very expensive, even if it sounds bad or if damaged / unplayable. Ray's Strad sounds reasonably good, but it is not anything on the level of the best Strads from golden period. His strad is 1735 whed Stradivari was old and on decline. Golden period was 1700-1725.
But even 1735 Strad is far more expensive then - let's say very good Guadagnini (Julia Fisher plays Guadagnini for example) and average Guadagnini is much more expensive then outstanding Vuillaume (Hilary Hahn plays Vuillaume for example) which has nothing to do with the quality of the sound of these instruments.
I suppose Hilary's Vuillaume can eat any Stradivarius violin for a dinner except few super good ones.
Frankly, you need to learn a lot about violins. It is not as simple as it looks and more expensive instrument doesn't mean better sound quality, handling, response etc.
Sometimes the corelation exists. The best violin in the world is probably Paganini's Canone, which is the most expensive violin without any doubts. But it is not a Strad. It is Guarneri. The price tag is infinity, money can't buy it.
The second best violin in the world is probably Spivakov's Carlo Giuseppe Testore violin made in 1708. Just my opinion. The third is probably another Guarneri, the David 1749, ex Heifetz.
I don't know how many Strad's are in top ten, but at least three or four. All of those instrument are far much better then Ray's Strad and as for as Carlo Giuseppe Testore, he sells for $100.000 or so.
Facts. I am no connoisseur but yes the differences so Apparent from the beginning oh, but I definitely cheap violin good until everything started to get more difficult
This really shows that a really cheap violin is all you need if you are a beginner or casual player. There are people who think they need to have an expensive instrument but in all likelihood will never play the complex melodies that really bring out the difference in quality between a cheap mass-produced and an expensive hand-crafted violin.
And above all this shows that the player is always more important than the instrument. A good violinist is going to sound good even on a cheap violin.
Exactly
To get the basic mechanics down you don’t have to spend a fortune but if the kid is serious, you can discourage them fast if you don’t or can’t upgrade when they need it.
Crazy how a violin looks perfect after 300 years, yet an electric guitar after 40 years looks like it went through a war
Strads have been taken apart and reassembled/tweaked for over 300 years. Same with most old violins. You can break open a violin, clean it up and glue it back together, and put some varnish and other things without damaging the instrument.
That's because we treat them differently. How many of us keep our guitars in cases after playing?
All those gigs for common-folk takes its toll
@@sagnikpaul233 oof size LARGE (I'm a guitarist and I feel attacked)
As Indiana Jones says, “it’s not the years, it’s the mileage.” Lol
Whilst the Strad obviously has a richer and warmer sound, I was really impressed by the $69 violin. It was only at the super advanced level did its shortcomings become really obvious. No doubt that has something to do with the extraordinary skill and technique of Ray Chen.
Ditto on that one,
Yeah good point that a cheap instrument can’t handle complex technical pieces because of how shoddy it is made to be but to be honest those who buy those kinds of instruments are not going to be using it to ply taxing stuff that a strad player is going to anyaay
I've been wanting to learn violin and the prices involved scared me off. Listening to Ray throw mountains of complexity at the cheap violin and it still keeping up moderately well convinced me to add it to my Amazon wishlist.
Ray is cheating, this is NOT $69 violin out of the box.
Decent new blank violin bridge is wort $6 and more. Setup the bridge correctly is worth $25 at least. Adjusting soundpost is another $25. I'm not sure about the strings, they seems to be cheap steel core, but not the cheapest ones. I think they are worth $10 a set or more.
So it is $69 violin with $66 upgrade so the price was doubled just -just to be able to cross the strings and play in higher positions and produce very bad sound, even in Ray's hands :)
Indeed... not bad at all, really
It was fascinating to hear how well Ray made a $69 violin sound - albeit with more effort. What might be more interesting is comparing the Strad with a modern violin by a first class luthier- something in the $50K price range. Then the question would be: does an excellent modern violin compare with an excellent Strad..
nice
Sadly, it's been pretty much proven by double blind tests that modern quality instruments are virtually indistinguishable with Strads and Guarnieris. I was hoping the Strad would be better. Maybe the musician just rises to the majesty of a 300 year old historical artifact.
This begs the question what is the difference of the strings being played and the impact of a quality bow. Great video. Thanks.
Does, but, IMO not as "complex". And I swear there's something about the wood or the way they were treating the wood back then but it's like the older strings seem to have more resonance, and, I think, character is the term.
I cant remember what it's called, but Two-Set have a video in which they do more or less that (though not with modern instruments - one was an 18th. century Lupot, I remember). It's very interesting.
The biggest difference is felt by the musician or someone who is a professional listener. For the average listener, there is not much difference. The result is that you are really a skilled musician. Well done, it's really admirable.
As a non-violinist, the $69 one seemed to “ring” or produce a slight overtone that made the notes sound….thin. Thin is the word that comes to mind. The Strat sounds full, rich and warm. No competing overtones from string to string.
I think "thin" is a good description, for some reason that's the word that comes to mind for me too. I'm not a violinist either, although I learned for a few years as a child/teenager. (Sadly gave it up as a confused teenager with undiagnosed ADHD).
To me, the Strad is the one that sounds thin. The $69 Violin sounded much heavier and cloudier than the Strad. Personally, I liked the $69 violin better.
the 69$ one didnt sing as ell
Mmm yes, the fullness and warming sound of money
@@Kateyangyuqing you're probably thinking about timbre. The less expensive violin sounds reedy - or has less of 'body,' sounds shrill in comparison to the more expensive one.
It's crazy to me that we, the general public, get to hear such a beautiful and historic instrument being played so expertly by such an amazing artist in such a casual setting, with commentary from the artist. Thank you Ray, for helping make the arts more accessible to us.
Chen: It definitely has this richness to it.....
$10 000 000 violin: Yeah. I wonder why.....
😂😂😂
My eight year old son watched one of your videos and has since become obsessed with the violin!!!! ❤ He's getting one for his birthday next month! Thank you for inspiring a love of music!
don't worry I can play the 10,000,000 dollar violin and make it sound like a 69 dollar violin. that's my talent guys
A violist is especially good at that because they can never play in tune
I can bet I can beat you at making a Strad sound like a 69$!
Nope, I'm not proud of it.😭
I can make the Strad sound like playing a viola.
omg same, we should collab sometimes
ARB 😂😂😂😂😂😂😂😂
Ray Chen: "The strad has richness."
The 128 kbps TH-cam audio: *sweats*
I'll be honest - that $70 violin seems to work very well for the money. For a first violin, I'd pick that right up. That fact that it actually works for that price is amazing. This is great ad for Glary.
aw man
I hate to disappoint you, but the reason it seems to work well is entirely because of the guy who is playing it. Cheap instruments are way harder to learn on.
@@Lily-wd7dz so the strad would sound good in the hands of a bad musician?
I agree that it's easier to learn on a better instrument, I'm still going to give Glary props for producing a usable beginner instrument for $70.
@@JSchroederee actually, kinda. Obviously there's a limit to how good a bad musician can sound, but better instruments tend to be easier to get a good sound out of.
Setting up a cheap violin requires expert knowledge though. My Amazon violin…didn’t come with a bridge in a usable state. No notches for strings, shape wasn’t quite right, etc. TH-cam tutorials and lots of time wasted to try to sand away bits of the bridge. And trying to tune. However, give me a Strad and I’ll still sound terrible, lol.
I honestly can’t believe how good you make the cheap violin sound. Amazing.
Imagine having a $10 Million strad and playing twinkle twinkle little star
And here I thought he was playing ABC.
@@davidl6558 😂😂😂😂😂😂
That’s what those spoiled rich kids would do
David L it’s the same tune tho?
@@davidl6558 I feel like ABC and twinkle twinjlw little star are the same melodies
Have to say, you made that $69 violin sound beautiful
Well you made $69 violin sound amazing ^_^
69th like
Nice
ray playing that $69 one just made the price shoot up to 200.
That's a "Ray Chen" Glarry GV300.
*$4444*
SIX PISTOLS
The moment he touched it it just boosted
gay comment
When you played the first notes of "Mary has a little lamb" on the Strad, I swear I almost, well... I almost had a bodily reaction that I have generally only experienced with my wife! It was incredible. I have heard recordings of Stradivari' before, but to hear it directly after a beginner instrument, and in such a simple way, I for the first time in my life could well and truly say that I UNDERSTAND.
If this is anything like RaySMR...
I'll take this as a petition for more RAYSMR
Ray Chen plz no
@@RayChenViolinist All in for more RAYSMR
@@RayChenViolinist plz no
@@RayChenViolinist yes, please! 🍦🍧🍨
The Stradivarius is beyond magnificent! It responds so well to the player's dynamics, attacks of the notes it is "alive" and rich. Notice how in the hands of this master violinist the $69 violin sounds great -- until you hear the Strad. It is true that a master musician can make a junker sound great. But then listen to the Strad. WOW!!
nice
Give him a modern high end violin and compare it with the strad. You'll be hard pressed to identify which is which without being told.
You are getting too amped. Strad costs $10 million simply because it's in demand from rich people as investment. Stradivarious is status symbol to own like gucci bags or some fine art piece for the rich, even if they don't play violin or even enjoy violin music.
WOW INDEED!!
@@nobodyspecial4702 As I said/implied in my previous comments, a lesser instrument in the hands of a master will sound wonderful. To your point, this would be even more so with a modern high end instrument.
10:15 thanks a lot for saying that publicly! Many players won't own up to the psychological aspect of play testing and the perception of the instrument based on name and price.
I just subscribed & clicked the notification bell - GREAT VIDEO. No matter which one you played, they both sounded good relative to what it was so it proves there’s a quality instrument for everyone’s budget and they can maximize the output if they maximize the input. Keep up the great work as I enjoy the rest of your videos.
A good way to demonstrate how huge the difference actually is, would probably be in a concert hall, recording from row 12... The strad can fill the whole hall, the cheap violin would be barely heard from more than a couple of rows away. A small room camouflages that a bit.
Me listening to the $69 one: wow that sounds amazing
The $10m one comes in: ~OOoOhH~
I LITERALLY MADE THAT NOISE TOO 😂😂😂
@@Justine4Treasurer For me, asmr has nothing on that sound.
To be honest, I was impressed that the $69 violin didn't just fall apart while he was playing it. Equipment at that quality level for any hobby or activity really isn't meant to function properly and only serves to fool beginners due to a passing resemblance to higher quality equipment. I ride horses and all the gear I've seen at that price point that comes in kits like this will either fall apart, get you killed or both, so colour me impressed that it actually sounded decent and didn't crumble.
@@ArtGirl82 I saw a saddle on wish for 69$ and I was like wait what. My saddle cost me an arm and a leg xD no way that a saddle for 69$ will be in any way usable 🤣
@@codexone2194 Agreed
One thing you said is very reminiscent of what I have often said: “I judge a violin according to the amount of work I have to expend to get the sound I want.”
I find that I can pull a good sound out of most any instrument. But some of them really make me work for it.
Nice video! You play beautifully!
Agreed. If I really try I can make a plastic instrument sing, but I feel like you can sense the tension. When I play on a wooden instrument it just resonates better. You can tell the difference a lot better when you're farther away.
I play the clarinet btw.
Thanks
The love on Ray's face when he plays the Strad is kind of beautiful.
You can hear the difference right from the beginning. The Stadt's reverberation sounds like it gives Ray more colors and variations of the articulations to play with. The $69 was much drier, but I was surprised that it sounded as good as it did-up until the intermediate/advanced level...which shows he's a really good violinist.
I'm curious how a Stradt compares to a professional orchestral violin...even up to $10k that's a fraction of the cost of a rare stringed instrument.
No difference trust me. More diff will come from the player.
@@tomzhang8675 Definitely all the difference is in the player! But there is also a marked difference between the two violins. As a great player, he made both of them sound superb. But the Strad sounded better, hands down, and a significant difference would be perceptible with your eyes closed and without the name and price known.
BUT there are modern violins that sound just as good, if not better, than Strads and cost less than a hundredth of the price! Strads are bought as an investment in an art piece, not just as instruments for a star violinist. It's an art piece that you can use as your concert instrument AND it helps your profile to be known as a "Strad player & owner"! But if you just want a beautiful instrument, it's absolutely not necessary (or advisable) to spend $10 mil when you could spend $50k.
Plus, he also said the $69 violin was much harder and less pleasant to play.
I'm not a violinist, but have been playing guitar for over fifty years. Not qualified to give an opinion on violins, but I do know that certain acoustic guitars that are at least 60 or 70 years old have a resonance and beauty of sound which you cannot get from any new handmade instrument. Such as a 1920s D-28 Martin acoustic. That being said, I really did enjoy the performance during the comparison. Absolutely brilliant! Gifted musician!
sir what about the CF Martin GPCA5K guitar..? do you think its good or trash?
Thanks!
that strad is older than twinkle twinkle little star
This comment just blew my mind 😮
and uptown funk
As well as most of the pieces in this video.
probably just the variation, not the original tune? But mind-blowing still
Wikipedia says the tune dates from 1740. So yeah, the Strad has it beat by a few years. :)
Also worth mentioning is that the $69 violin is newly made and the Strad is almost 300 years old, and wood can mature and change over time, so that adds to the difference in quality of these instruments too. But very fascinating to watch this comparison! :)
That cheap violin would struggle to survive 10yrs of hard, daily play.
Being played makes a difference too. My 4 year old decent quality acoustic guitar has been played for an average of a couple of hours a days since I got it and it definitely sounds much better now than when it was new. I suspect the vibrations when played will similarly affect a violin body too. The Strad might have well over 100,000 hours of playing time since it was made,
You should compare these to like an intermediate student instrument--mine is about $8k. I'd like to see how an instrument that isn't the best of the best but still made by a luthier who knows what they're doing compares to a Strad.
Out there are many videos about that. You don't have to wait for that.
Twoset did a video similar to that if I remember correctly
Likely that 8k intermediate would be easier to play the difficult pieces than the cheapie was,he wouldn't have to struggle and he could shape the music easier, but likely it would hit limits in the really advanced stuff and overall would not have the resonance of the strad. My son's intermediate instrument that lasted until he hit late high school was an old french model from a named maker in the Mirecourt school, and it had a beautiful sound but was difficult to play in really complex concertos like the Tchaikovsky,could not handle it well. The other fallacy is that an instrument like a strad is easier to play, and that isn't true,being old they require adapting to them,too,violinists claim they have arguments with their instrument at times,and it usually wins:). I think playing twinkle twinkle the difference wouldn't be noticeable, the devil's troll and the like you would hear it,even if less glaring than the 69 buck instrument.
i'm not a violinist, though i've followed twoset since 2020 so i've seen a good bit of violin stuff, so up until the advanced section they didn't sound too far apart to me. and then advanced/super-advanced parts... and holy guacamole, the strad SHONE. gorgeously rich, warm sound
The Strad looks so glorious... visually the richness of the quality of the wood is immaculate.
How lucky to be able to hold one let alone play it!
The tonal quality of the Strad is warm and melts like butter.
You could definitely hear the difference. But what surprised me most was that for only $69, you can get a violin that sounds pretty decent. I would have thought that a beginner’s violin would run in the hundreds.
I was surprised that you could even GET a violin for $69 too! When I was a kid, my beginner's violin cost like $500 I think!
@@Kateyangyuqing thats why when I was into guitars I hated the tonewood debate. Its not about the wood its about the quality of the electronics and the player. Same with violins. Its about the strings and player. A strad is a status symbol like air Jordan's.
@@violinfanatickamraz1403 mate you do not know what you are on about. The strings are important but the wooden body is responsible of most of the overtones and projection.
@@loiman4179 so youre saying my EMG pick up and other high end hardware isn't gunna wake the devil in a particleboard body? shattered😢
There is a massive difference but surprisingly, the $69 instrument sounds pretty good! Also, your playing style is a lot less aggressive on the Strad, which I actually kinda like.
sounds good because ray's playing it :'))
The strad is quite a bit louder he's fighting to get the tone out of the chinese one....
I think it’s because the 69 dollar one doesn’t project as well. So he had to put in more “effort”
@Eri I kinda like it though, the Symphonie Espagnole, controversially, I think sounds better on the cheap instrument.
The Strad sounds almost too “pretty” for the piece.
When playing Bach and Tchaikovsky though, of course the Strad would sound better!
He doesn't have to work as hard on the Stradivarius because it already sounds good.
Honestly, you make the cheap one sound good, but there's a fuller sound with the Strad, it has a larger sound profile.
That last piece with the Strad melted my face, thanks so much.
wood: 40$
strings: 15$
sound clarity: 9 999 931 $
bow: 14$
Someone who is good at finance please help me budget this.
maybe cut a bit from sound clarity?
He didn't tell us the approximate value/cost of the violin bow that he used... It wasn't the one from the $69 kit...
Strings are kinda expensive actually, good wood too
@@Martinullis ANTIQUE wood
Ah, well I would probably go with something around 75-150€ for strings 😂 Good strings are reaaaally expensive
And well, the bow is probably a few hundred more as well
Would be great to see a video of Ray playing different violins blindfolded and trying to identify which one is the Strad. Of course the violins would have to be very good quality ones in order to be a fair comparison (ok ok, you can throw in a cheap one just for kicks), but would be interesting to see if he can identify the strad among high quality violins without looking at them, just based on their sound and feel while playing.
TwoSet violin actually did that. Sure it’s not Ray but just for the case of the game, you can watch it there :)
You did so well on the $69 violin . The Strad fulfils the whole note with clarity and depth. Beautiful.
nice
Goes to show, that a master can use anything at all. TBH, at least through YT, I was only able to hear significant differences with the advanced and super advanced levels. And as Ray mentioned, it seemed less a matter of sound quality, more a build quality. He should do a blind comparison, at least for the audience. (Yea, I know this is 4 year old vid...)
A real testament to how well you can play Ray! You could play that cheapo in concert and still get a standing ovation!! Thanks 🙏🏻
As a non-violin player, I'm in awe of the Strad. The sound difference is incredible! Clarity, recirpocity, the ring. Gorgeous sound
@4:20, I noticed how much effort he was putting into the piece of music and the violin itself. I could see he was really giving it everything he had to get the sound quality there. This was before the end of the section where he talked about how hard it was for him to get the instrument to respond to him. And then, the Strad.... How nice......
You have a lovely personality and a really great smile. Of course your playing is bravo bravo!!
Not even listening with headphones and I can hear that the Strad has a much fuller sound but the difference is less obvious when you played the beginner level pieces. Great video 👍
So basically on one side
“it’s you not me”-musician
and on the other side
“it’s you not me” -the strad
*plays $10mil violin*
Ray: Yeah, it definitely has this _richness_ to it.
6:50
LOL
I literally read this comment as he said it. It felt so satisfying
I should bloody well hope so for that price tag! Lol
You could also do a test by making a comparison by putting a good set of strings on the cheapest violin and having it adjusted by a luthier.
Bruh does anyone here having an anxiety looking at 10 mil violin being laid there on the couch like a bag of potato
It Looks pretty comfortable to me
Also in the beginning while he had it balancing on his lap, swinging his arms all over
Violins are pretty tough. A sofa is perfectly safe.
Violins are pretty tough. A sofa is perfectly safe.
rfdzn yes but that is a strativarius violin.....
The less expensive instrument sounds thinner and more muted. Thanks for the comparison. I really enjoyed it.
No matter the violin, Ray Chen always sounds good.
The difference was stunning, even on my limited PC speakers it was so obvious. Must have been a blast to hear it live. Thank's a lot for the experiance.
Goodness, whether $10M or $69, it's just a pleasure to hear you riff.
This cheap violin is a GREAT for beginners on a budget. You dont need anything more than that on the first stage of learning.
In the hands of a master either can sound great, but the cheap one is much more difficult to play.
A beginner starting with an extremely cheap instrument may become discouraged because their beginner skill can't get inspiring sounds out of it. A well chosen $300 violin from a good production line seems wiser to start with than a $69 violin from the most rushed process and bottom of the barrel wood.
Better yet, rent an instrument until you are sure you want to play. That way you know the place you are getting it from has set it up properly and its a decent instrument. You will have spent less money if you end up not following through, and many places let you put money spent on your rental towards buying a new instrument down the line.
I think that something that many people listening to comparisons like this doesn't take into account, is the quality of the recording microphone and the speaker or headphones they are listening through. I have to admit that I usually have a hard time hearing that big of a difference, and I think it would be a whole different story if I had been sitting in the same room when Ray played.
Yes, the Stradivarius wins hands down (especially on the advanced pieces), but what impressed me the most was how good this guy can make a $69 violin sound!
I'm just astounded at what a decent sound you were able to wring out of the $69 violin! Who's playing really does make a huge difference, too.
7:50 I don't even know violin is able to make that kind of sound. Truly fantastic.
Ray can
It's called fugues
Great demonstration Ray. Now, I'm absolutely not a musician or a scientist; I just enjoy good music. To me the Strad seemed to maintain previous notes into the following notes, thereby creating a flow rather than a start-stop series of notes. That leads me to believe the Strad is capable of sustaining multiple resonances simultaneously.
Even on an iPad there is a significant difference in the sound I’m hearing from the Strand versus the $69 violin. Of course you’re playing is magnificent which is also a factor. Wonderful video.
Not even Ray's eyebrow can make the $69 violin stay in tunes...
This is what i feel
$69 Violin is like a Man who tell a story without emotion, so plan and flat
$10.000.000 is like Morgan Freeman tell a story. so Rich and Warm straight to my soul
I don't feel they are that much different. Just one sounds brighter and one sounds darker. New wood and old wood. It makes bigger difference if you comparing playing on the street and the concert hall. The 69 bucks sounds better in the concert hall than the Strad on the street.
Mika Zidar it sounds like that because he’s in a room in front of a mic. Try listening in a concert hall and the difference is worth the 10 mil
@@queenieloveladygaga1 I feel the strad which about 300 years old has many story to tell... And it is wiser
@@Phitaq1987 What if you forget about that's a Strad and just use your ears to listen? 😉
Mika Zidar there’s a huge difference! If you can’t tell that much from this video, then you’re just the type of person that buys a car to just get from point A to point B.
Interesting video. When I started with the violin as an adult I had a very simple one in the beginning (but more expensive than $69...). After a year I felt that this instrument was not at all sufficient. I went to a violin-maker, tested several violins and when I took a specific one, just played an open string... this was an undescribable experience! Like a resonance that went through my whole body and heart, like an individual voice that touched me deeply. Immedietely I knew I had to buy this one. (Which was not at all a Stradivarius but still not a bad one.) It sounds warm and rich.
I didn't like the background-music in the beginning and at the end of your video.
the wand chooses the wizard
His face says it all as he plays.
One is focus and mastery of the craft the other is joy in the sound
Ray Chen: -holding a strad on his knee-
Me: -fear-
I want to be the strad
@@summernights2661 what
the saddest part is an instrument is more expensive than our house
All our houses... like, combined.
@@ongoingawakening4257 yeah you god buy a lot of houses for that lol
SAME here lol! its soo sad when i look at it in this perspective :(
Ha! Speak for yourself... I have no house
which instrument?
As the son of two professional violinists, and having grown up with violin practice in my house all my life, I have to say I think you did a great job extracting what you did out of that cheap ‘instrument’ …really well done
Nobody:
Ray: There was a problem on the G string for the $69 violin
It almost sounded like it was intentional
Apparently somebody hit it's G spot and blew the g string...
I thought he was talking about "Air" (on the G string), the sublime Bach piece. I wish he had played that on both violins. I wonder what grade it would be given. It's probably intermediate level in terms of technical difficulty (or maybe similar to "Meditation de Thais" which was intermediate-advanced), but extremely difficult to really make the violin sing it the way you know it's supposed to sound...
Moral of the story: playing on a cheap violin is like gaming on the hardest difficulty - it just takes a lot more effort to get the same results.
With the cheap violin you can’t even get the same results
@@PumilateVFX That's horseshit. This is all like confirmation bias or some other psychological crap; if you'd heard this man (without seeing what he was playing) perform a whole concerto with a $69 violin, it still would've sounded absolutely wonderful to you or anyone. Any other notion is pure mental scotoma, potentially even snobbery.
@@alexayers9463 either your trolling or trying to annoy me. If you really can’t tell the difference with rays level best playing check your ears
Well... The cheap violin still sounds fantastic in the hands of a good player such as Ray here, but there is definitely a difference between the two violins. It's really not confirmation bias. You could close your eyes and not hear "Strad" and you'd definitely tell that one violin sounds better than the other. The Strad has a deeper, warmer, more mellow, rich sound - compared to the "thin", shrill, dry, almost tinny sort of sound the cheaper one gives. Not sure if these words are what you would use but they're what comes to mind for me anyways. It's hard to describe sound!!
Ray indeed makes the cheap violin sound incredible - but the Strad sounds /even better/. Not to mention, he said that the cheaper one was much harder to play.
That said, you don't need to spend $10 million; you can get the best of the best among modern violins for less than $100k that sounds just as good as the Strad - and perhaps even better! Strads are not just a professional's tool; they're primarily an art investment that can also be used as a professional's tool (that also comes with a little boost to the player's reputation in being associated with the name Stradivarius)!
@@PumilateVFX Could be the headphones/speakers even. I'm wearing pretty decent headphones so you can easily hear the difference definitely beyond the possibility of confirmation bias - even if you had never heard a violin in your life I'm sure you could tell the difference.
Beautiful playing. Would love to hear a $2K to 5K level violin vs. the Strad.
the talent of the violinist means that you can play a "basic" violin magnificently... and the price difference is not as great a distance as the sound produced, by the excellence of your playing... well done for this video...!!