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Best speaker/system piano concerts

Hi,

I enjoy many type of music but am a big fan of piano concerts. I’ve been to Hifi shows before but often find the music that they are playing not to my taste. 

Does anyone have recommendations for a speaker and amplifier that would be great to reproduce big piano plays realistically? I don’t think it’s easy for a system to have the speed and weight that the piano produces.

Would say speakers that are around 20-25k second hand and amps of 10-15k used

Looking forward to your suggestions.


hififreakk
craigl59
307 posts
 

Tekton Double Impacts do pianos superbly. Their multi-tweeter array assigned to the high-mid-range works for the complicated piano timbre effortlessly. When the speaker first came out, many noted how accurate pianos sound with this transducer.

With the DIs, pianos emerge out of concerto textures with clarity and exactitude. The Fields Concertos by Bamert are a good example.

kijanki's avatar
kijanki
4,428 posts
 
"Personally, I do not like what warm sounding equipment does to the sound of a piano. Warmth is wonderful on vocals, guitars and certain instruments, but it beats against the stretched overtones of a piano. The overtones in a piano occur at slightly higher than harmonic ratios, and these create beat notes with the exact integer ratios produced by electronic equipment (and speakers). Too much harmonic distortion will make a piano sound out of tune."

That is quote from John Siau -  Director of Engineering in Benchmark Media Systems, Inc.
roberjerman
4,319 posts
 
Snell Type AIII's are a forgotten classic design still competitive with today's big-buck speakers! Dead-flat response (+ and - 0 db) from 30 to 20k and wide dynamic range. Plus textbook perfect off-axis response! Lowest coloration possible from a dynamic speaker!
auxinput
2,920 posts
 
wow, I think we all did more harm than good at this point.  With speakers, I have noticed that there are sometimes going to be 12 different opinion on what is best. lol.  sorry.
terry9
2,333 posts
 
The soundboard of a 6' grand is about 25 square feet. IMO, to reproduce that believably takes a comparable radiating area.

That leaves big planar speakers or big planar speakers. I use Quad 2905's. Amplification is full complementary class A solid state from MC to speaker.

I get best results from the 0.25mV MC with active amplification rather than transformers, even the very best, which I also have. Piano also requires a very low load = high input impedance at the phono = 47K.

Even so, doesn't quite sound like the grand upstairs.
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