Pirastro Obligato Violin String Set - Medium Gauge - Loop End E - Aluminum D

I love these strings! Their sound makes me think of rich, delicious chocolate; smooth and addictive. I've used Dominants for years, which have a more shimmery sound, and I've used Evah Pirazzis, wondering what inspires their popularity, but these Obligatos are definitely keepers!

These strings I've found greatly increase the quality of sound on lesser expensive, student violin that are far too bright. Their richness and easy response are fabulous. I'd define them more as orchestral strings than solo strings because they're not nearly as easy to project as the Evah Pirazzis or Tzigane. Some say Obligatos very closely resemble gut strings. Unfortunately, their excellent rich, sweet sound doesn't last long under rigorous playing. Mine usually lasted maybe 2 months before the tone was going so far down hill I had to get new ones, and I've been looking for strings with Obligato richness & sweetness, but more projection and longer lasting ever since.

This is a great sounding string - very rich and warm. It immediately improved the sound of my daughters violin especially after breaking in the strings. However, the A string became frayed and hard to tune less than 2 months after buying and had to be replaced. The D string followed a couple of weeks later. If Pirastro can improve the quality of this string it may become it's best seller. In the mean time I would think twice about buying this string.

My violin is an Albani made circa 1700. Its dimensions are slightly smaller than a typical full-size violin. It has a warm, soft, but rich tone, yet a powerful sound that projects well when using Pirastro Eudoxa strings. Since the 1960s, my standard strings have been the Pirastro Eudoxa, although from time to time I used the less powerful Pirastro Gold Label when I didnt have enough money to buy the Eudoxa strings. Over the last three years, I have experimented with several strings offered by Shar Music: Larsen; Pirastro Eudoxa, Olive, Obligato, Evah Pirazzi, and Wonder Tone Solo; and Thomastick Dominants and Vision Titanium. So far, the most satisfactory sounding strings have been the Eudoxa and Olive.
I recall that both the Obligato and the Pirazzi strings were once touted as being close to the Eudoxa sound. I did not find this to be the case. The Obligatos are a very nice synthetic core string, much better than the Thomastik Dominants, but did not have the warm sound that I had expected. They did not hold up as well as the Evah Pirazzi strings.