I thought it was just me, but this is why as a kid I could not stand to hear my friends playing violin (playing well at recitals) and chose piano and guitar instead.I have lived with live instruments in my house. Pianos ( upright and Grand), Violins ( several, Cellos ( several)... What you hear on record is often far from what you hear at concert and again it depends on the seat and venue... Violins for example have much more treble energy than heard in most audio systems. The "massed strings" sweetness that many audiophiles talk about is a construct of rolled off systems or of recordings.