What makes strings sound "sweet"?

Als assessment seems accurate (as usual) and I would tend to agree.

It also helps explain why tube gear often produces better results in this department than SS gear, though this is not always necessarily the case.

Agree also that distortion of any kind including IM will surely wreck havoc with the sound of strings especially. Getting strings to sound good along with everything else is one of the most elusive things to accomplish with a system I have found.

"This is absolutely the hardest element for a stereo to convey. ... The recording is important, but so is your stereo."

Agree 100%. Subtle weaknesses in source, pre-amp, ICs, and/or power amp together will often exhibit themselves here during a well recorded sustained string note. Speakers too but perhaps to a lesser extent in general in this regard. To get this detail to sound consistent and natural and not distorted in subtle ways from start to end is an ultimate test. I used to think that this was the blatant achilles' heel of CD digital. Now I think it may still be the weakest area of CD sound recordings, but not to the extent where it always must sound problematic due to the recording technology.

I heard some very sweet yet articulate and impressive digital string reproduction off a VAC/VTL/DCS/Magico Mini system (mega mega bucks) at Sound By Singer a couple of years back. That became my reference in this regard and I determined from that that digital was not necessary the bane in this regard that I had suspected prior.

I also heard an expensive system built around Peak Consort speakers at SBS also that was one of the strangest sounding I have heard and a total bust for me. Overemphasized highs and muddy indistinguishable lows. I suspect something in this system was defective. There were other QC issues with gear on display that I noticed that I thought totally out of line for a dealer like that. I think I also talked to the notorious owner of SBS on the way out. Not a pleasant conversation. Oh well.

They did have more nice stuff on display than any other shop I've been in in recent years. Reminded me of Tech Hifi years ago only factor in a X100 cost factor for inflation, Manhattan rent costs, whatever. The combo of all that nice and largely expensive gear to choose from with various deficiencies in customer service was apparently a lethal one.

Josh,

That's an interesting observation I have not heard before. but it makes sense and seems consistent with what I have heard live over the years!

Rtn1,

I agree with what you are saying. Getting a handle on massed strings has been one of the biggest challenges for my system I have found.

But I don't think that invalidates that different mikings produce different sounds in recordings.

I will likely agree that they should not sound overly steely with any decent recording, but at the same time I am not sure that they are always equally smooth yet detailed or "sweet".

Massed strings is definitely one aspect of sound that getting right definitely helps separate the contenders from the pretenders

I am not a musician but my daughter does play violin and the sound can be sweet or strident naturally it seems depending on technique, sometimes by design sometimes not.

I am also pretty confident not all violins or string instruments in general all sound the same in this regard. 

Plus when it comes to recordings, the production technique used also affects what is heard in the recording in this regard.    Are there two violin recordings where the violin sounds exactly the same out there?