the sound of massed violins in classical orchestral recordings

When one buys a recording be it a record or cd ,they aren't even thing if it would sound good.There believing that it will .That is the sad fact.

Thank you all for your caring, thoughtful responses.I did an exercise today and wrote about it here in detail. I left the room for a moment and when I returned, Felicity,our dearly beloved cat was sitting on the laptop and all of my brilliant,insightful exposition was gone. I have a lot of respect for Felicity. Despite all warnings, she has never once shown any interest in the Magnepans and no matter how much Mahlerian angst is shaking the room, she lays down between the Maggies and goes to sleep. So here I go again. i have been listening to two CDs. The wonderful Samuel Barber Violin Concerto,Shaham,London Symphony,Previn,DG Digital,recorded 1993. Brahms Violin Concerto,Heifetz,Chicago Symphony,Reiner,recorded 1955,digital remaster,painstakingly adhhering to the original recording technique. This is what I heard.The violin solos were clear and "hash"free.The Barber solos were very up front, large and aggressive; the Brahms solos were further back. The string sections in both orchestras were equally "hashey","gritty".Interestingly,in both recordings,when the orchestras went very loud,the ''sandpapery hash" was much less evident,but as the volume began to recede,particularly in the Barber,the "hash" became more prominent.The softer the strings became, the more prominent the "hash". until It was louder than the melody and the "hash"was echoing in the right channel.It seems to me that this is an artifact of the complexity of the violin sound that Frogman and Millercarbon and others were referring to, a reverberation that probably dissipates quickly in the concert hall and goes unnoticed, but is locked [ trapped?] in the recording.So,I suppose, there is no panacea--a static reminder of the divide between life and synthesis like the dots [pixels ?] in photos that Frogman was referring to. What to do? For me it is ameliorate.
As has been suggested, components that are laid back,"forgiving."
Anathema to most audiophiles but very attractive to me. I'm suspicious of any component touted as "detailed."How much "detail"will I hear in the concert hall? How much do want to hear?

The problem isn't massed violins or any other instrument although instruments with complex waveforms make what you're hearing more obvious.  Even pure sine waves playing the exact same pitch (which real live musicians and singers frequently vary slightly vary from each other can make for an even rougher sound) that originate from different distances from the microphone will sound rough due to how they comb filter each other.  Therefore, even when listening live you should hear the same roughness.  Massed coral music will do the same thing.  It's simple physics.  Therefore, it's difficult to judge the fidelity of a recording or playback system when using music with massed interments because it's very difficult to distinguish the live roughness from the sound of added recorded comb filtering.  For more on this and polarity in general, see:  www.AbsolutePolarity.com, George S. Louis, Phone:  619-401-9876, please feel free to call me.

P.S. Yes, I hear that artifact in solo voices and choirs, a kind of "rattle" from certain notes on the scale. Eileen Farrell Puccini Arias. What a voice! But on certain notes' kind of "cackle/crack"reverb. No problem with flutes....so far. Regarding "laid back", I remember reading some attractive things about the VANDERSTEEN 2CE Signature II. But now it seems to have disappeared and there is a Signature III,which no one has written about yet.Life goes on. I'm going to chill and put on some Brubeck on vinyl and then maybe some Keith Jarrett. Is vinyl better than CD.Dunno,but the ritual that used to irritate me back when is kinda fun now.

This is a fascinating string. I agree that the sound of strings is very tough to reproduce. Perhaps I lack the sophistication to comment here, but I do play the classical violin. My complaint with most recordings is that the sound doesn't sound real. I want to hear that the violin(s) is/are made out of wood. I want to here the zzzzhiitt sound at the frog of the bow. The recordings on DG are in my humble opinion the best at capturing string sound. Decca is positively the worst. If the original recording equipment doesn't accurately capture the sound, it won't matter what equipment we use to play it back.