Aurum rosin is aptly named. It is certainly my new gold standard. Upgrading to Aurum is like upgrading to a new bow. It makes the bow better. Most recently, over the past several years, I have experimented with, and left both Hidersine Amber and Dark far behind. Andrea Solo rosin was OK but up until a week ago, I had been quite satisfied alternating between Cecilia Signature Formula (during more humid weather), and Cecilia Solo (for drier weather). If you’re on a budget, I would still recommend Cecilia, however, Aurum is a substantially superior option.

I have two Coda Bows that were due to be re-haired. I decided to use their ‘mini trial’ service, where they sent me 3 bows and a return label to send my 2 bows back to them. Two of the three I requested were twins to my Esher & Tuxedo which I used while mine were serviced. I am determined to get the most I possibly can from my 125 year old violin with recently replaced Infeld PI strings (which had been overdue after 6 to 7 months of use). I decided that while Aurum rosin is expensive, I wanted to give it a try.

When my re-haired bows were returned, I spent a couple of hours comparing two bows using Cecelia and two identical bows using Aurum. I have been extremely happy with the quality of my Coda bows since I first purchased them. I had no idea how much the quality of sound could be increased by using Aurum rosin.

I immediately noticed that there was less friction between the bow hair and strings, with a cleaner, more focused sound. At first, I wasn’t sure if I liked the tone and as I warmed up I thought it might not generate quite as much volume. The sound quickly evolved into something I loved, and after comparing back and forth with the Cecilia, Aurum actually produced more volume for the same effort. The quality of sound was also superior for pianissimo passages with better tonal qualities under low pressure and slower bow speed. The dynamic range, pianissimo to fortissimo, is noticeably greater than with the Cecilia rosins, and it also allows more nuance and greater range of expression.

Legato and detaché bowing with Aurum rosin produces a clean, silky warm tone. Harmonics are clearer and easier to play. Spiccato took a little adjustment due to less friction and somewhat different action rebounding off the string. Most importantly though, the sound quality produced with Aurum is more pure, and noiseless than I could have imagined. All of the rosin I’ve tried before has some minimal sound/noise that is in addition to the notes being played. I didn’t really even think about it until it was gone. At the low end of my priorities, Aurum also produces less rosin dust. While my experience with different brands of rosin is hardly exhaustive, Aurum is easily the best I have come across, and for me, it is worth the price.