I tend to believe these recording problems originate with the engineers.
While I never had the privilege of attending concerts in the Philharmonie
nor the Grosser Saal, from what I've read, I tend to believe the acoustics
there are more than adequate, if not outstanding.  Nevertheless recordings
at these sites vary in sound quality, even in the hands of the same
engineering teams!  I do have a Karajan/BPO (DDD) CD recorded at the Berlin
Philharmonie which is very good and has ample opportunity to demonstrate
string quality.  It is DG 423 375-2, Mozart Divertimento K.334 and the
Seranata notturna K.239.  In the same vein I have many of the Levine/Vienna
Philharmonic Mozart Symphony issues all recorded in the Grosser Saal.
Some of them are very nice, others border on ugliness.  On a related, but
different topic, I am not one who enjoys historic recordings, regardless of
how outstanding the performance might be.  Musicians go through some bother
and expense to acquire instruments having particular sound qualities.  I,
for one, want to hear them as faithfully reproduced as is possible,
otherwise I feel I'm just wasting electricity!