10 Flute Demonstration RESULTS

This post is a response to THIS BLOG. Watch that one first.

Find out the which flute is which and hear them again! 

Then watch video part 2 to find out winners of the voting and my responses to many of your questions.

If you are interested in learning more details about these flutes, please don't contact me, but contact Burkart Flutes and Piccolos at 978-425-4500 or visit them at www.burkart.com.

If you want to ask specifics about the instruments in this demo, here are the serial numbers for the flutes I played:

#1 .016 silver (my flute, sorry!) with plat riser

#2 19.5K Gold body 488, head 2027

#3 10 K Gold - body in tape, head 1344

#4 14K soldered, body 446, head 2027

#5 14K drawn, body 07035, head 2027

#6 595 drawn, SOLD

#7 .016 silver (mine) with platinum head # 1979

#8 998 body 459, head 2147

#9 .016 body (mine) with 14K head 2027

#10 595 drawn body sold, 998 head with plt riser 2020

Which flutes did you prefer? Which flutes did I prefer? Could I hear a difference between metals? If so, why? Can we prove that different metals sound different?  

You may find the study SILVER, GOLD, PLATINUM - AND THE SOUND OF THE FLUTE interesting. It “proves” that there is no measurable difference between metals, just players. 

“I found this exercise extremely interesting, both as a flute player and coming from a background in psychology. The fact that overall we were not able to distinguish between the flutes, and that flutes 1 and 10 and also 3 were most voted for, seems to result from the Primary and Recency Effect, aka the Serial-Position effect. Basically we chose the flute at the start (primary) and end (recency) and flute 3 would also fit with the primary, because our brains are just wired to remember those best. It's scientifically proven that information at the beginning and end of a event is best recalled. So I found myself not surprised by the results from this regard and predicted 1 and 10 would get the most votes before hearing your results. This may sound like utter rubbish but I do feel that it's an interesting, possible explanation which must have contributed to the outcome in some way at least.”

- Eoghan, Ireland