Thanks for the replies DJS and Ajax. I haven't seen any sonograms of different violins, but DJS if you can post some I'd like to see them. Ajax, I agree there is subtle complexity to violins - I really do think there's a difference you can hear between Strads and Taiwanese knock-offs. I also think the different designs, signal path length, capacitors, resistors, transistors, transformers, sound different. Folks upgrade capacitors in amps with audible results. Do these differences show up in sonograms? I think the proposition that all solid state amps sound the same is based on many assumptions including the assumption that the individual components which make up the amp do not have any audible effect on the sound. If all capacitors, resistors, transistors, transformers, circuit designs sound the same, then I suppose you could say all solid state amps with the same power output will sound the same at any given output. I just don't believe it. I'm not a actually a scientist but I did stay in a Holiday Inn and I'm open to letting my ears fool me. Sure sounds like upgrading components change the sound.
Do audio engineers measure all there is to measure about sound? Are our ears connected to more sophisticated sound analyzing software than a microphone generating 'sonograms'?
