Perception of violin soundpost tightness through playing and listening tests

This study involved playing and listening (using recorded sounds) experiments to investigate how changes in soundpost length (for a fixed position) affect the perceptual qualities of violin what threshold change is below which players luthiers do not perceive differences. A length-adjustable carbon fiber was employed. During experiment, subjects played provided on modified by experimenter find their optimal lengths. Then varied randomly ten trials within ±0.11 mm around lengths asked always compare with previous setting. The results showed that subjects' from 0.132 0.616 relative original (53 mm), but could recognize variation 0.11 or less at above chance levels. listened 16 pairs recordings through computer interface were asked, for each pair, whether setup same different. differentiate difference about 0.198 better than level.