considering how much professional musicians get payed (at least in the smaller symphonies in the U.S.), you’re getting ripped off at $17k.

Besides the already evident “no soul” aspect to the music it plays, there is no real saving grace to this. The tone is terrible, its incabable of vibrato (it will be forever stuck playing like a first year violinist) and at the very basic level, it cannot perform expressivo.

The other problem that may not be readily evident is that people who listen to classical music do not go to a concert to listen to music. That can be accomplished at home, often with a much superior orcehstra performing (or even the composer conducting!). One goes to a concert to see a performance! Because the machine is not capable of musical interpretation, then it could be argued that it is not even performing at all… its just replaying the notes. Listening to this play music would be like listening to Ben Stein read through Hamlet, including all the parts. There is nothing here that is exciting or new.

Like the previous poster said, musicians are in no trouble of being replaced.

As a classical music enthusiast, I have to say it sounds as mechanical as it is. Human violinists are in no danger.

You can find older mechanical violins. I saw one once that was part of something called an orchestrion, essentially a music box on steroids. This “violin” used only one string, and had mechanical “fingers” along the entire length to stop the string for the correct note. Instead of a straight bow, it had a wheel that turned continuously.

Very neat invention and sounds very real.