Recomendation for speakers BEST for Piano?

Ritteri...How do you know what experience I have? Again you quote your conjectures as if they were facts.

I play the violin. My wife plays our Steinway grand. I have screwed around with audio equipment since about 1953. My job involves the design and testing of complex military electronics. However, I don't claim that all this makes my ears any better than yours.

Again I say: your opinions (like mine) are of interest and worthy of consideration, but should not be confused with facts.

You play the violin? So do I! Who made your voilin? Full size?Type of wood used? Who made the bow? Horse hair or synthetic? WHat kind of strings do you use? How do you store your Violin?

Funny that you mentioned Violin's. I used to appraise them part time in Ma. to help pay my college tuition a few years back. It was a very enjoyable job, very laid back, but I learned alot about appraising,repairing, and even mfg. techniques used by old school string maker's in the area.

Steinway Grand too eh? Really? Which model does your wife have?

BTW, no opinions on my part,ALL facts until you can prove otherwise(and that isnt going to happen because I doubt you would ever be foolish enough to take on a bet you cant win). And you know how you can do that. Take me up on my offer so I can make you(your ears actually)look a bit foolish in person. Ill bet ANY amount of money you couldnt tell the difference between a Yamaha YDP223,a Yamaha U-1,a yamaha P-22,A Samic SIG50 a pair of Dunlavy SC-IVA's and Revel Salon's(I wont include the ML Prodigies because they have an easily identifiable harmonic distortion thats easy to pick up on, just like all planer speakers have)You would have 1 electric piano, 2 vertical's and one grand piano along with 2 pairs of full range competently designed speakers. With no visual que's you would NEVER be able to tell on a consistent basis if its "Live"(a real piano) or "memorex"(floor standers), let alone which model is playing(well maybe the electronic piano on a good day). If you feel otherwise, next time your in the Boston area, be sure to swing by.

But in all honesty you should have read some of the other posts above a bit more carefully about being able to discern the differnces in piano harmonics and full range speaker without even knowing what the actual piano is supposed to sound like in the first place from the original recording. There is no opinion to this, just a plain simple fact. If you dont know what the piano sounded like exactly to begin with before being recorded, how can you tell if the recording or speaker is faithful in itself to the original track? You cant, just like you cant make the original statement you made. And that my friend IS FACT.

Muralman, your enthusiasm for the Apogees is curious. I owned the Duettas for a time and found them exciting but ultimately unsatisfying. I suspect many others did too leading to the demise of the company. Their inefficiency and cruel impedance swings tended to bring out the worst aspects of most amps except those least suited to the nuance of piano and voice. I must confess that before your post on 11/14 I did not realize that the Apogees could all "straight line to 20db". For the Quads to match that feat you'd have to use the volume control but I think they get pretty close to 0dB with the mute button.

Ritteri, your comments are, well, more opinion than fact until proven otherwise, so saith doubting Thomas. I would be interested in hearing more details on how you have arrived at your conclusions, these tests that you have done. I haven't heard an audio system yet properly produce all the things necessary to convey the realism of a live piano, any piano. Timbre is the first to bite the dust but Quads do come closest in my experience but lack in other areas, dynamics mostly, to be totally convincing. I sure would love to have you prove me wrong cause then I will have found my speaker!

btw, I've heard some great recordings on both vinyl and CD on modified IRS 5 and Genesis 200 system which came closer than anything in ALL areas, but maybe I was fooling myself in believing what I heard wasn't real? ;^)

There's an awful lot of entitlement and opinions flying around on this thread. My buddy, Duane, plays the skin flute (I think he also appraises them too) and I know for a fact if you blindfolded him in the room with his kickass home theatre setup that he couldn't tell the difference between a porno playing on his 6-channel and actual fellatio going on in the room. I know because he and his friends actually tried it once and they were all repeatedly stumped. Can't remember the components though I do remember he seemed to have enjoyed the challenge and recommended I try the same with my wife. Duane's an odd duck, he tells me he really sucks at playing the skin flute but he seems to have an awful lot of willing partners. Must be the kick-ass HT setup. Gotta git'me one of them!

Marco