> Does it need to be mentioned? It seems obvious that they be comparing with the best, not comparing with the $20 Friday Special from Joe's Discount Violins and Sheet Metal.

I think so. "Modern instruments" is a very wide span, and leaving it off lets people conclude what they want about the instruments. See, for instance, other commenters concluding that this proves they're junk, or comparing them to $2000 cables equivalent in effectiveness to $5 cables. Instead, these are $million instruments, with hundreds of years of history, and also sound as good as very expensive modern instruments.

Good point. It's obvious to me, but given the comments about audio cables and such, clearly other people don't automatically get it.