$69 vs $10,000,000 Stradivarius Violin - Ray Chen

His expression when playing the 69 $ violin: his expression is like whats this funny things i dont want to play this but i will have to ..

when playing thr stradivarius: his expression serious and is like oh my God what's this i am holding something amazing.

if you play the video at 2x speed, you cannot tell the difference.

Thank you, now i know I am the problem

That gramophone in the back is a replica

You are a beast!!!!

Espectacular hermano Mis felicitaciones por tu Video tu explicación y sobre todo Tu interpretación al instrumento. Me da gracia las extensiones que tienes en la mano izquierda ya que dejas el pulgar agarrado totalmente antes de su falange jajaja Pero igual tocas espectacular y eso es lo importante. Muchas gracias por tu Video y sigue así men.

Great buying advice, couldn't decide between the two.

There is a big difference between the 2 the Strad is Far better! 😊

Excellent comparison. Your performance of the various skill levels was great. Amazing playing too.

The lack of internal resonance in the cheap violin makes it sound super nasal. Stuff it full of socks and it will not get much worse than it already is.

But why did you record Strad louder? It does sounds miles better, but its louder by i think 5-6db ._.

300 years from now the cheap Chinese violin will be touted as the pinnacle of all violins. The best of the best. Frankly, I'm hard of hearing and really don't give a crap. However, rich people gotta have their toys. Bragging rights are important.

I'm amazed at how good the $69. violin sounded. Obviously the Strad sounded better but I wonder what a medium priced violin would sound like, say around $2000.?

you could fix the 69 dollar violin with a compressor and an eq adjustment.

One thing to keep in mind is that I bet the Strad has the very best strings while the El Cheapo has El Cheapo brand strings. Well, that along with the factors of master-built by hand vs. mass-production, Alpine spruce vs. ???, and a 300 year break in period vs. 300 seconds. :)

what happened to your australian accent? i thought i heard you speaking in one in the twoset violin video

Ya know im a normal person, i like plays, movies, fights in the street. Ima not notice a Stradivarius Violin over an electric guitar. if its entertaining im on board... im sorry to say this is a 3rd world issue in todays world.

Eu quero uma viola copy Stradivarius.. tamanho 37cm, ou tamanho 38.cm.🇧🇷🇧🇷

You hear the difference, but the cheap one sounds very good for that price and give beginners with less money the chance to play the violin and that's a great thing.

Ah yes, i definitely 100% heard the difference on my laptop speakers. The strad definitely made me, as the listener, listen more.

wow I blinked and quite literally did not notice you had started playing a different instrument. Absolutely wild, they sounded identical in the recording.

Edit, the more complex songs sound clearly different. Twinkle twinkle was identical though low key

Now I know why i don't sound as good as you, it's because i don't have a stradivarius,

Where did you get this strad? Do you own it or rent it? if rent how much it costs per day? Do you need insurance for it? This strad looks like a copy, real strads are longer and they have a label which i don't see here.

Is the strad better? Of course. Is it like a 500,000 times better? Not even close.

I've heard lots of these videos where experts play cheap and expensive violins and I always come away thinking the same thing...there's no reason to ever spend more than about 15k on an instrument and even that's pretty huge.

The skill level of the $69 violin cant keep up with the skill of the 10M player i guess

Difference - absolutely! $10,000,000.00 difference - no way.

Iconoclast boy !

I’m not sure if warmth is the best way to describe the sound of the Stradivarius- it does indeed have a clarity in its sound but the tone seems a bit bright and projects the sound with vibrance.

The $69.00 violin sounds muted and good enough for a second or third part in the symphony- having too many Stradivari violins in one setting might sound just as bad as having three piccolos playing together. Not a good idea.

Привет! Что-то для Страдивари скрипка слишком чистенькая, без единой царапинки!

I have to say that even with this 69 USD violin, the sound is of course way different(worse) to Strad, however, I think it still performs way much better than I expect!

You should try one of these Chinese Workshop Violins that sound very nice!

the $69.00 violin is my pick...its just tht i cnt afford smthng more expensive so i dare not even dream of owning a strad

The 69 bucks violin win hands down,, value-for-money wise.

its a tough choice but after listening back and forth for a couple of hours i think the 10 million dollar violin sounds slightly better so ill buy that one.

please don't have a Stradivarius leaning loose against your torso... so painful to watch. The cheap VSO, fine, but please not the Strad :D

Its not worth 10million.. okay what is worth "money" but seriously, for me the Stradivari sounds soooooooooo unbelievable good... holy...

need to use the bow that comes with the $69 violin as well. A ton of the quality in sound production is in the bow. The hairs are held by the stick, and it is resonating along with the violin and in fact can limit the resonance that the violin can even do. Using an expensive bow on that cheap violin makes it a much more valuable combo. Maybe should do a video on different qualities of bow using that strad.

Great comparison! Obviously the Strad sounds much better but there's not $10 million difference. Mr. Chen is terrific as well. Thanks.

Bravo! I am amazed at how good the $69 violin sounded. $69!! Of course, the Strad sounded much better and much more full. But a beginner could invest in a $69 violin like that to learn on. You probably couldn't buy the parts on that violin for $69 to make a better violin with. Amazing.

I feel the cheap one has trebly sound to it that makes it hard to listen to for longer periods of time. To compare it to 300year old historical museum piece as you said is not a fair comparison, but aswell it doesn't make the Strad million times better.

That Stradivarius sounded better, but what if you put the same strings on that cheap violin? Those strings are the first thing to upgrade in anyway. I'm sure it would have sounded way better and even the playability would have been better. I'm not a violin player, but even I know this. And I'm sure there are some other minor upgrades you can do to reduce that gap between these two even further, like adjusting or changing bridge and nut, or changing tailpiece or some other "hardware", but then of course it would be bit more expensive than 69$.

Or what if you would have taken some pretty decent practice violin, can we still hear the difference between this and let's say few hundred bucks and maybe around 2000$ violin. I bet most of us can't, if you have the same strings.

If you can play on a cheap violin, you can play on an expensive violin

The Glarry is basswood - possibly layered (like plywood), made on an assembly line. Too many factors working against it, all of which fight the resonance factor - although it is probably better than a good bit of what is currently labeled 'student.'

I doubt how many people ca tell which one is better if you don;t tell the prices and let them to judge by the sounds. Also if you ask another violin player who is not very good to play the strad and maybe more people will think the $69 violin sounds better and more expensive. Anyway thanks for the program.

I made my own violin and its priceless because its my first violin that i made

The Strad is better - but it is not objectively anywhere near $10m better. With a Strad you are paying for a story, for history, for a placebo effect - after all - all that money must mean something surely? A good modern instrument (for $20k-$100k) could sound just as good as a Strad (and often, arguably better).

I like your videos, I am new to violins but play guitar for +40 years (rock, blues, fusion) and I am surprised the things you do at that 69 dollar violin. OK, it does sound not as beautiful (I think) but it seems to play nice. I am used to pretty good guitars (electric Fender strat, Musicman Majesty, Ibanez jazzbox, Martin acoustic) and the problem with cheap guitars is that they often are hard to play, bad intonation, do not stay tuned, to high action etc, played one that had such bad tuners that it was impossible to tune them. A good instrument motivates, gets the best out of me and does not hinder/limit me. My first (electric, I am a Jean Luc Ponty fan) ) violin is also a cheap set (180,=) and it gives me not the confidence a good guitar does. I do not know if I make it sound bad or that it is just sounding bad (even amplified, it is not in balance even using EQ, not resonant, not much sustain (maybe not important for a violin because you use a bow) because it makes playing more difficult as it already is. It sounds rather "plastic"

only a deaf person or a silly musician is incapable of understanding the sound of a good violin, rubbish like that

Its a race between a Peugeot 206 and a Porsche 911 GT3 RS :) iam not a violonist but i can easily ear the difference