Recomendation for speakers BEST for Piano?

Ritteri...Your credentials are overwhelming. Why don't you run for president.

Geez, this place is starting to sound like a news group.

Khrs,

You must have not tried many amps on your Duettas. I used a mere 150 watt amp on those "inefficient" speakers to very good results. Good enough to have Martin Logan owner and a Quad owner enjoy them.

Only the Scintilla really fits the bill as grossly inefficient. Even so, when the Scintilla is matched with a can do amp, there are few full range speaker contenders.

That precludes the Quad - not full range.

My Scintilla does straight line down to 20db, and trails off to beyond. The mids and highs are as delicately articulated as any, while surpassing nearly all.

Ritteri, I hate to rain on YOUR parade dude, but IMO you have come on way too strong with your assertions. I'm thrilled that you feel so strongly about the merits of your chosen speakers, but...

Are you suggesting that the human ear is not sensitive enough to tell the differences between two same model Yamaha's? Why then, don't many players, and not just professional musicians, simply order a piano over the phone and call it a day? Why bother with test playing them in showrooms, and agonizing over the sometimes subtle, but obvious differences. Are you suggesting that the human ear is not sensitive enough to consistently tell apart a Yamaha electric from a real grand? Or from Dunlavy IV's? Musicians that you know were not able to do this? Professional musicians?!?! (And I don't mean to suggest, at all, that only musicians can do this) Just how much money are you willing to wager?
Email me privately if you would like to extend the challenge. Interesting, though, that you use Yamaha as a reference; of all the major piano brands, probably the least harmonically rich and complex.

Anyway, I agree with you that there are a few speaker systems can come pretty close to reproducing the sound of a real piano. But the impact, the resonance of the wood, the complexity of harmonics and difference tones that even the best recording equipment has trouble capturing? Close? Sure, but no cigar. To suggest otherwise also means that playback equipment and amplification has reached a level of perfection that, I think, most here would agree is simply not the case. Speakers are, by definition, at the mercy of what came before them. As good as it may all be, it's all far from perfect.

Now, about that challenge...

Seriously, happy listening, and don't let this hobby lose it's mistery and challenge. When it starts to happen, I asure you that you're just not digging deep enough. Reproduced sound will never be able to sound like the real thing. Close maybe, but as they say...

Support live music!!

I tried to get back to my last post to amend it - too late. Now I'll have to take the heat from Quad owners.

In my defense, I first want to confess the Quad is one of the greatest speakers ever.

The thing that I love about the Scintilla is it equals the Quad in transparency and immediacy, but surpasses the Quad in extension. Since musical instruments emit a kaleidescope of frequencies, having the lows and the highs fully covered assist greatly in presenting a convincing picture of a musical event.

On repro music and the real thing: That depends on how far the listener might be from the real thing. A lot of frequencies are absorbed, and dulled over a distance. There is no doubt, in my mind, a Grand, in the living room, will never be equaled by any playback system.

In the case of a piano concert, from a distance, IMO there are systems that can fool the most musical savvy. At least, I have been fooled.

My first experience with the Scintilla in '85 completely fooled me into thinking I was indeed listening to a real piano - in an adjacent studio.

I had never seen the likes of the Scintilla. I took them for room dividers. They were being fed by a Goldmund table and Koetzu cartridge, Pre amp and amp unknown.

I have a good sense what a real piano wounds like. We have a great heavy old turn of the century Piano upright. My wife plays beautifully, and I had attended numerous concerts by that time.

Walking into that listening room, the piano was completely convincing. It sounded receded, some distance away, but real just the same. There was no one in the room to tell me otherwise. Not until I poked my head through an open doorway, where the piano diminished, did I understand the joke was on me. I promised my self I would own those speakers that sound like a real piano - as soon as I could afford the beasts to drive them.

We live in a golden age of audio, with new digital formats coming out all the time. Radically new amp concepts are appearing, like the powerful Butler OTL, and the Acoustic Reality ICE powered amps. Inexpensive digital front ends are closing the sound quality gap with high end (really!).

I sold the beasts I was first driving my Scintillas with, and now use the Acoustic Reality eAR 2 amp to power the Scintilla. No longer am I peering through a door to the real piano, I am now in row E.

I had a Quad owner over the other day. I played a little Brickman "Autumn" music for him. He sat there with his eyes closed for a long while. Then he looked my way, and asked, "Wouldn't you agree you have recaptured the real thing, like you heard years ago?"

Yes, I think I have.