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What are the best loudspeakers under $4000 to re-create lifelike piano

Over the past 4 months I've spent time with five loudspeakers.  On a scale of 1-10 I'd rate them as follows in their ability (with my equipment in my room) to recreate a lifelike piano.  Tekton Lore - 6.5 (great scale but tonal accuracy and clarity somewhat lacking),    Kef LS50 - 7.0 (moderate scale but slightly better clarity and tonal accuracy)  Kef R500 - 8.0  (great scale and very good clarity and tonal accuracy), Spatial Audio M3TurboS -8.1 (great scale and very good clarity and tonal accuracy and very smooth)  Magnepan 1.7i - 9.0 (very good scale with excellent clarity and tonal accuracy - very lifelike).

In your room with your equipment, what loudspeakers are you listening too and how would you rate them for their ability to recreate a lifelife piano and if possible a few comments as to why?
snapsc
kalali's avatar
kalali
1,977 posts
 

One important factor not explicitly mentioned is the ability of the speakers to create a realistic size of the piano according to the type of the music and the venue. In my experience, the larger panel speakers completely miss this criteria regardless of how well they might reproduce the timber or tone. To my ears, the closest sound (and size) to a real piano, especially jazz genre, came out of a pair of full range single driver Lowthers in a horn-loaded enclosure, the Charney Audio Concerto. May not go low enough for some western classical piano pieces but for jazz or blues the best I've heard. 

phusis's avatar
phusis
1,202 posts
 
@joeschmoe

I can understand why you, or anyone else for that matter could be discouraged reading this thread, but for my part - with my post above - I’m trying to get after what it would take to approach a fairly realistic(!) reproduction of the (grand) piano, no less, an instrument I’d regard as one of the absolute most demanding for ANY speaker, regardless of price, to tackle. Any sought realism with this instrument and its reproduction is a daunting task, certainly if you uphold what it really sounds like live.

I’ve never heard your Bryston speakers in question, but I’ve read very positive reviews of the larger, floor standing sister model. I can only assume Bryston is consistent with the quality across their range of products, and for this to naturally translate to your speakers as well.

Be that as it may; if you like ’em that’s all that matters. Enjoy them and your future ventures into "audiophilia," but, if I may: remember to attend acoustic live concerts to really bridge your own sonic findings in audio equipment with that of a real reference. To my mind it could have you save a lot of money, and importantly by-pass a tendency in "audiophilia" to close its walls around itself and be less susceptible to marketing drivel.
wspohn's avatar
wspohn
603 posts
 
$4k goes much further if you buy used, All sorts of possibilities, Vandersteen, Magnepan, ML CLS, Quad, that would mostly exceed your cap new but are available in good used condtion in that price range.

Choice for you will depend on other equipment, room size desire for deep bass etc.
vahes
47 posts
 

Most domestic audio rigs can not reproduce the sound of grand piano such as Steinway-D if recorded with no compression. Among Jazz labels DMP was the only label that dared to record piano with minimal compression but unfortunately they are out of business, Telarc was also into audiophile jazz recordings but theirs were not up to DMP standards. Among classical labels BIS records everything uncompressed, if you really want to test a system reproducing grand piano try BIS-1580, Mussorgsky Pictures performed on Steinway-D by Freddy Kempf, the finale of this work will bring the house down if your system can reproduce it in a realistic volume and survive.


snapsc OP
674 posts
 
So, for some people, reproducing a piano may be less meaningful than reproducing an acoustic guitar or a clarinet. In theory, we could have xxxx more threads to see what is recommened for other instruments or voices. Then we could tally the results and see what loudspeakers were good for everything. Then we could rank order them by price so as to help newbies get the best for the least $$$.  The fun point of this thread so far is not what people don't like but what they do like and why and what they have have moved on to. 
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