What is the most perfect invention in human history?

The violin.

Unlike pretty much anything else ever invented, the highest quality violin is essentially unchanged in roughly 500 years.

Modern technology has not been able to improve on the art of manufacturing a violin.

This remains as crude and mysterious as it did in days of Stradivari and Amati families of 16th and 17 centuries AD.

Fewer than 1,000 of these Renaissance originals remain in the world.

That’s why they are so valuable. They can easily fetch millions.

There has never been such a thing as a tonally perfect violin, with perfect, consistent vibrations and acoustics--even with today's technology.

And it is very debatable if that would even be a good thing.

There are so many resonances at play, at almost random frequencies, from the start of a note to when it hits your ear, that the output (or tone) of a particular violin can vary materially from second to second, never mind comparing different violins.

This is a good schematic:

. . . then there’s the physics of the simple bridge of the violin, which has different properties at different frequencies, or notes.

It doesn't act as a simple mechanical lever, especially at the higher notes and intensities.

Then there's the bowing action, which adds hugely to its sonic complexity.

We are still learning about the physics of the interaction of sound waves moving into & out of the violin’s sound box from the strings, and the strings of the bow, ultimately to our ears...

We do understand the physics of the violin as it relates to how sounds are created, but not their 'quality'.

This is why the manufacturing of a great violin remains essentially primitive--the artisan maker bends and taps each wood piece and judges its 'sound' manually by ear, and similarly as the pieces are assembled.

There is no standardized quality control.

So simple, yet so complex.

. . . and capable of some of the most sublime sounds humans can create.

If anyone doubts the beauty of the violin (not to mention the genius of Antonio Vivaldi), here is his Concerto for Two Violins in A minor.

Or here's another treat: Vivaldi's Concerto for 4 violins in B minor, part of his first set of concertos entitled 'L'estro armonico', which liberated and revolutionized orchestral music.

Finally, one last one, Daniil Trifonov plays Rachmaninov's melancholic Trio élégiaque No. 1 in G minor, accompanied by cello and violin. Hell yeah.

Rach was a 19-yr old student when he composed this.