Faster Sound System

[Curious Violinist]

Anyone tried these?  Do they work?  Curious of trying but price is a little steep... https://fastersound.com/violin/

[Will Turner]

The sharp hollow needle like appearance makes it seem like repurposed mortuary hardware.

I experimented with the cheaper titanium end buttons from Stradpet.    Are also hollow and have a plastic screw that can be removed to allow a camera to look inside the violin.  Far cheaper at $19 USD.

 

[JacksonMaberry]

Is there a corporate white paper, or better yet, third party analysis of how well this product does what it claims to?

This has been discussed here in the past. The more experienced makers and restorers here were not impressed at that time. 

[David Burgess]

I'm sold on those MoFo's, just from the description alone.

They even claim that their endpin prolongs string life.

I can't wait to stick various devices in though the ff-holes, trying to plug some of the holes in the endpin extension, so it can be played like a flute.

[Foldejal]

I'm little bit skeptical about Mischa Maisky testimonial. From what I saw about his personality, when we played with him, I can't imagine him writing such text... 

[Don Noon]

4 hours ago, JacksonMaberry said:

Is there a corporate white paper, or better yet, third party analysis of how well this product does what it claims to?

This has been discussed here in the past. The more experienced makers and restorers here were not impressed at that time. 

Previous thread is here, where there is a link to the US patent.  It is not necessary for patents to be actually true, as this one appears (to me) technispeak gobbledygook.  An excerpt:

Yup, totally obvious.

[Arbos]

I’ll be in Madrid early July so I’ll try the different models on my violin and will report back to you all. I know some people who have it and they like it but it might be make believe, of course.

[The Violin Beautiful]

If the problem of weak sound is coming from trapped air in the body, perhaps the company could rig up an endbutton so that one could attach an oxygen line from a tank to help the violin “breathe.”

Gimmicky endbutton and endpin designs abound, but none of them have moved the proverbial needle, even with endorsements from notable players. 
 

Looking at the return policy, you only have 15 calendar days to decide, and you can’t return it if you’ve taken it out of its packaging or used it at all. If you can convince them that it’s defective (without opening it?), they will issue a refund, but you’ve got 7 days to get it back to Spain or you’re not fast enough for them. 

[Andreas Preuss]

What I find strange here is that they make pretty precise claims of what can be expected but don’t show any proof for it. I find it also strange that one device is the ‘cure-all-problems’ with absolutely no drawbacks, regardless the sound of the instrument. And clever enough they are saying ‘tested on fine instruments’ bringing positive results. Doesn’t this imply that if there isn’t an improvement the instrument wasn’t ’fine enough’? 
 

I would rather invest the same amount of money in a better bridge and other setup related items.

———————————

(I should get a patent for my carbon rod reinforced bridges and sell them for a juicy price. At least they can perform measurable changes for the sound.)

[LCF]

4 hours ago, The Violin Beautiful said:

If the problem of weak sound is coming from trapped air in the body, perhaps the company could rig up an endbutton so that one could attach an oxygen line from a tank to help the violin “breathe.”

 

Why stop at oxygen? You could have a little CO2 cylinder and a helium cylinder and a control panel to tune that cavity 'weak' or 'strong' 

[Violadamore]

On 4/24/2025 at 7:18 PM, Don Noon said:

Previous thread is here, where there is a link to the US patent.  It is not necessary for patents to be actually true, as this one appears (to me) technispeak gobbledygook.  An excerpt:

Yup, totally obvious.

In the earlier thread I said "I'll leave the objective validity of the patent contents, as well as the usefulness of the device described, to the judgement of my learned colleagues".   The response to this having been minimal, I'll go ahead and point out that the air in and around a violin being played vibrates, but the music passing through it doesn't make the air flow anywhere, and sound transmission neither causes nor depends upon airflow (and will the brass players and the other special cases please sit down.....     )  If the air doesn't flow to start with, the air inside the violin body shouldn't be described as "residual".  Neither do I believe that you could have "turbulences" in the absence of a fluid flow.  And so on and so forth.......

IMHO, things like this are fixes for a nonexistent problem based on a defective understanding of sound transmission.  I'm not going into it here, but if anything, producing airflow through a violin might be as likely to cause acoustic problems, as to fix them.  Here's an easily understandable paper about airflow (as in "wind") effects on sound that will illustrate what I mean:  https://www.acoustics.org.nz/sites/www.acoustics.org.nz/files/journal/pdfs/Hannah_L_NZA2007_b.pdf  There are at least hundreds (more likely thousands) of far more hardcore engineering papers (dealing with issues like noise transmission and abatement in ductwork), that treat sound transmission in a confined airflow much more mathematically.  

So, buy one if you want to.  It might have some defensive application during a riot at a violin competition or something.  Which reminds me....what would airport security make of seeing this thing during an x-ray of your instrument?  

[Shunyata]

I have zero evidence to support the following statements.  But I will conjecture anyway:

If a vibrating violin plate produces sound  by vibrating air inside a violin, it is producing just as much sound vibrating air outside the violin.

The main purpose of the f holes is to allow the plates to vibrate more freely and produce even more sound… on the outside of the violin.

The presence of a tiny hole in the end pin is inconsequential in comparison to the f holes.

[LCF]

10 hours ago, Shunyata said:

I have zero evidence to support the following statements.  But I will conjecture anyway:

If a vibrating violin plate produces sound  by vibrating air inside a violin, it is producing just as much sound vibrating air outside the violin.

The main purpose of the f holes is to allow the plates to vibrate more freely and produce even more sound… on the outside of the violin.

It's complicated. Mostly the ff seem to facilitate the rocking motion of the bridge and turn it into a pumping motion with the help of the soundpost. Air sloshes around inside with many complicated resonance patterns some of which radiate through the ff holes but ... it's complicated. 

10 hours ago, Shunyata said:

The presence of a tiny hole in the end pin is inconsequential in comparison to the f holes.

 

The situation for sound pressure inside a violin  near the endblocks at the lowest (~Helmholtz) frequency is that sound pressure is max and sound 'flow' (particle velocity) is minimum. Molecules can't easily flow through solid wood, they bounce back when driven forward.

I didn't bother to lookup the details of the device in question  because the blurb is a work of fiction.

However, a small hole in the form of a capillary has a resistive effect which is different to larger holes. This is used for instance in the 'speaker' holes of clarinets and oboes where if a deep and small diameter keyhole is placed near a part of the bore where a standing wave pressure maximum exists, it will disrupt the standing wave, and cutting a long explanation short, this retunes the resonances to aid a shift to the next register. ( You can read good explanations of this in Benade's book. )

A small capillary hole in the tailblock of a violin could weaken or retune the A0 mode for similar reasons. As to whether this is a useful effect -- I doubt it. Usually it's good to keep A0 mode as strong and as low as possible within the constraints of body size versus internal volume.  The reality of the effects of the device in question is a very long way away from their description of them. 

[Marty Kasprzyk]

Carleen Hutchins did an experiment where she drilled 65 holes of 5mm diameter eaually spaced along a violin's rib ("Swiss Cheese" or "Le Gruyere" violin) as shown in the attached photo from the National Music Museum.   The holes were plugged with corks or left open in many different combinations to see how the various air mode frequencies changed. 

Apparently it sounded best with all the holes pluged. So I doubt a hole in the end plug would give any improvement.

[David Burgess]

To make "Faster Sound" (increase the speed of sound), one can pump helium into the violin. It's a fun party trick. 

[Violadamore]

1 hour ago, David Burgess said:

To make "Faster Sound" (increase the speed of sound), one can pump helium into the violin. It's a fun party trick. 

Will it make people with synesthesia see a blue glow around the violin?    

[LCF]

12 hours ago, Marty Kasprzyk said:

Carleen Hutchins did an experiment where she drilled 65 holes of 5mm diameter eaually spaced along a violin's rib ("Swiss Cheese" or "Le Gruyere" violin) as shown in the attached photo from the National Music Museum.   The holes were plugged with corks or left open in many different combinations to see how the various air mode frequencies changed. 

Apparently it sounded best with all the holes pluged. So I doubt a hole in the end plug would give any improvement.

 

So she didn't try a hole in the tailblock? Maybe she missed a trick in that ONE spot!  

 

 

[Arbos]

I will be meeting with him to try all the different models, so no harm if I don’t like it, I’ll simply not buy it. He is also the luthier advisor (?) of the Stradivari quartet in the Royal Palace, so it’ll be an interesting visit nonetheless.

[Davide Sora]

1 hour ago, Arbos said:

I will be meeting with him to try all the different models, so no harm if I don’t like it, I’ll simply not buy it. He is also the luthier advisor (?) of the Stradivari quartet in the Royal Palace, so it’ll be an interesting visit nonetheless.

Please keep us updated on your test results.

[HoGo]

I think those claims are so absurd that even trying out is wasting time. Hearing is so subjective and if you remove strings to install the device and try again after installation you'll never get the same sound even if you install back the same wooden endpin.

Like trying to check personally claim that the earth is flat...

[bungling_amateur]

From the "simulation" video on the linked web page:

 

Quote

...eliminates part of the residual air that is constantly generated inside the cello and that, in turn, cannot be completely released from the resonance chamber through the f-holes, causing the incomplete production of harmonics.

I would be interested to know if the people making and marketing these make-believe items actually believe they are on to something, or if it is done entirely cynically to extract money from gullible buyers.

[Arbos]

On 6/13/2025 at 12:38 PM, HoGo said:

I think those claims are so absurd that even trying out is wasting time. Hearing is so subjective and if you remove strings to install the device and try again after installation you'll never get the same sound even if you install back the same wooden endpin.

Like trying to check personally claim that the earth is flat...

I’ll record it and bring somebody with fine ears who doesn’t want me to spend any money (my wife). Also it’s quite easy to personally check that Earth *is not* flat haha

[Dr. Mark]

On 6/13/2025 at 11:27 AM, bungling_amateur said:

Quote

...eliminates part of the residual air that is constantly generated inside the cello and that, in turn, cannot be completely released from the resonance chamber through the f-holes, causing the incomplete production of harmonics.

I would be interested to know if the people making and marketing these make-believe items actually believe they are on to something, or if it is done entirely cynically to extract money from gullible buyers.

Lol for the record, the quoted text from the website is utter and complete drivel.  

[Don Noon]

20 minutes ago, Dr. Mark said:

Lol for the record, the quoted text from the website is utter and complete drivel.  

It's just cello-specific drivel derived from the more general gobbldygook I quoted in post #6.

[Marty Kasprzyk]

On 6/12/2025 at 12:01 PM, Violadamore said:

Will it make people with synesthesia see a blue glow around the violin?    

I met a violin maker who had synesthesia and she would see various color glow patterns around a violin when it was played.  She thought it was a great help because she could much more easily remember these color patters than the sound character.  This helped her duplicate what she liked.