How does solo piano help you evaluate audio gear?

@jjss49 Spot on..Absolutely! :) It’s funny, over several years I focused on both of these instruments when dialing in lowest midrange frequency and bass drivers in my custom speakers. And the same again dialing in more musical subwoofers, finding the right drivers there too. Cello and bowed bass are amazing for sure, thanks for bringing these up, good thoughts!

Thanks for partaking your interesting story...

I am glad we understood one another better...

I was more lucky....

I have a very good hearing judging by my work in small room acoustic...

I decided to realize my Hi-FI dream after my retirement few years ago...But no money...

I succeeded with improvising my homemade devices for electrical,mechanical and especially acoustical aspects, the three working embeddings dimensions for any audio system....All this at almost no cost...

I discovered by experiments that acoustic treatment and especially acoustic mechanical control over pressure zones distribution and laminar air flow guided by Helmholtz method and Has wavefront law in acoustic that no improvement upgrade can beat acoustic....

It is the reason why my 500 bucks system present a S.Q./price ratio over the roof....Embeddings control of the system...

My deepest regards to you....

@mahgister

Any contributions I afford, I do not put great value on. My experience with audio is "old" having gotten out as a shop steward in 2001 and continuing as financial backer until 2008.

All 3 shops achieved gossamer like status and no longer exist.

I have also lost about 30% of my hearing starting in 2005 when taking several motorcycle trips cross-country.

Perhaps playing trumpet in a jazz band did not help as well.

Perhaps i get touchy about my own inner turmoils but I am at the point now where "audio" has lost its esoterica for me.

Perhaps little makes any difference to me now. Perhaps i've heard too much. Perhaps I've achieved "ok is good enough" so don't go making a lot of fuss about nuthin". "This one sounds more clear and real to me than that one" Period. I am not one for word smithing or literary adornment. 

I have gotten to the point where "why do you like this wine? Is its bloom, its after note? its finish?

And I answer: "no, it just tastes fucking good to me."

I would make a very bad reviewer, "about this amp, it has no audio weight, its highs are rolled off, it is sparse in its detail and its bottom end is almost non existent...In other words, I think it sucks."

While I agree that we’ll recorded piano is excellent in some ways for testing speakers & whole systems in terms of tone, body  & real subtlety,  I think in many ways well recorded drums can  be even better. Bass drums, tom toms, snares, cymbals of all kinds are great tests of dynamics, frequency extension, speed & even imaging. Both styles of music & recordings are important to get a complete picture of what a speaker or system can do. 

I will add this observation, it takes many instrument and especially voices to evaluate the S.Q. of new speakers ... Piano was always a favorite of mine but cannot reveal all there is by itself alone for sure... Think for example like someone rightfully observed about cymbal decay...But by itself i think piano is a good "thermometer" of the room and not only a way to evaluate speakers...

But one this is said, remember that NO speaker can beat the room...

No speakers at any cost will beat by his upgrading power acoustic control,

Here are these 6 aspects of acoustic control parameters in a room i experimented with :

1 -Balance between absorbing surfaces,

2 -Reflecting one,

3 -Diffusive one....

This was "classical" passive material treatment of a room, now these 3 new other factors are related to my concept of the  mechanical active control of a room ( what i called a mechanical equalizer):

4-control over reverberation time and timing of the wavefronts

5- control over the distribution of the pressure zones

6- fine layering and tuning of the laminar flow

These 3 last aspects could be controlled with Helmhotz mechanical method NOT by electronical equalization...

Then the piano will not sound the same from the same pair of speakers in a non controlled room and in a controlled one...Not even close...
 

Dont upgrade good speakers with costly one BEFORE studying and experimenting with acoustic...

My acoustic devices and experiments were all homemade and cost me nothing...

I can then claim that great hi-Fi experience is possible at low cost contrary to what is claimed or supposed almost everywhere by almost everyone...

People dont know acoustic and never seriously try experimenting with it in a dedicated small room.