It is really depending on the violin what you need. My 140 year old German violin that is very delicate, did not like them. You could clearly hear the higher frequency range that is reduced by the Obligato's. Sounded terrible. But for the full bodied 2004 German starter violin that had some shrill frequencies, they were just perfect. Even the goldsteel Obligato E-string was better than the 8 other E strings that I had tried. The Westminster thick E was close to ideal, but still was beaten by the Obligato E. So in this case the whole set was just what this violin needed. Finding the right string set for your violin is challenging (and can be expensive) but worth it!