<!doctype html public "-//w3c//dtd html 4.0 transitional//en"> <html>   Farrell wrote: <blockquote TYPE=CITE><style></style> At the risk of  asking a question that has been asked a zillion times before...... Is there perhaps a fundamental difference in the way a piano soundboard vibrates compared to whatever on a violin vibrates from string movement to produce their respective sounds?</blockquote> Since the point goes to the general acoustic properties of wood... I'm not sure whatever differences in construction between various types of instruments is at all relevant.  Is the piano soundboard moving more like a speaker cone (I realize most soundboards are pretty far from that ideal) compared to the vibrating front of the violin? I ask that because if piano soundboard movement is closer to the speaker cone, we are strictly looking at a vibrating diaphragm, and the ability of the soundboard material to "transmit sound" is a mute point (pun intended). To the best of my knowledge, speaker cones do not "transmit sound", but rather move as a single unit at whatever frequency(s) is required to produce intended sound - paper cones work well, but carbon-fiber or a number of other exotic materials with greater stiffness-to-weight ratios than paper work better - but not because the exotic cone material "transmits sound" any better, but rather because the material moves more efficiently as it is driven by the speaker voice coil - or in the case of the piano, the string.  Well.. all I can say is that number one.. I've never bought into the idea that the soundboard functions strictly as a speakercone does, and secondly... if wood can transmit sound at all... then speaker cone or not... you cant overlook the...er.. transmission as it were..  Besides  ... if the pianosoundboard could so easily be defined and modeled... then we could have replaced the material with something else and achieved exactly the same sound years ago.  So my question is - is the speaker cone analogy more closely related to the case with the piano soundboard and less so with the violin? No relationship? I personally would think the piano soundboard functions far less like a speakercone then some would have it, and the violin functions more like a speaker cone then purists in that camp would feel comfortable admiting. Again, if fear this has been asked before - and if I've read info on it, I guess that means I just haven't thoroughly understood it. Its been done over a zillion times, and if people with all kinds of fancy initials behind their names continue to dissagree on the subject, I suspect there is good reason for that dissagreement-...., and I certainly would expect to find continued disagreement in forums like this one. And here's a question that may not have been asked before (and maybe for good reason): "As wood gets older,.....and displays lower EMC levels." Does it? Or does it simply become slightly less dense from losing volatile components, and then simply carries less water in it at the same EMC? Well... I dont know... I'm just putting out information as I run into it. This latest came from largely from teh Tampere University of Technology in Helsinki, tho there are some other resources on the nett where you can find similiar information. The fellow behind this particular study was one Pertti Nieminen, Docent, Ph.D.  He's the guy (grin... amoung others) you want to ask. Tho I will look through and see if Hoadly has anything to say on the matter. I just think its all interesting perspectives to read what different researchers around the world come up with. I wish I understood half of it as much as I should, and all of it more then I do... if you get my meaning. Cheers RicB Terry Farrell --- Richard Brekne RPT, N.P.T.F. UiB, Bergen, Norway <A HREF="mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no">mailto:rbrekne@broadpark.no</A> <A HREF="http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html">http://home.broadpark.no/~rbrekne/ricmain.html</A> <A HREF="http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html">http://www.hf.uib.no/grieg/personer/cv_RB.html</A>  </html>