What makes strings sound "sweet"?

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.

I believe that would be "Peak Consult", though I wouldn't mind having a peak at a consort, no matter what she sounded like.

Steely violins are caused by bad mic placement. Violins radiate different frequency bands in different directions. For that reason, if you place a microphone right above a string section, it will sound shrill and steely. One solution is to try to equalize the shrillness out of the feed. A better one is to mike the orchestra properly, with a stereo pair flown above the front of the stage.

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!

I learned that from Toole's book, if you have access to it there's an interesting illustration of the weird directional characteristics of violins in Fig. 3.3.

Here's the paper Toole references, but they want $25 for it:

http://scitation.aip.org/getabs/servlet/GetabsServlet?prog=normal&id=JASMAN00005100006B001994000001&idtype=cvips&gifs=yes&ref=no

Also an AES paper called "Tonal Effects of Classical Music Microphone Placement":

http://www.aes.org/e-lib/browse.cfm?elib=11768