Let's get some facts straight. The lowest note of your typical grand piano is A 27.5 Hertz, so it could be argued that any speaker that does not go this low, and fairly accurately, is not a good candidate for "best for piano". To say that there isn't much information in this range, in classical music, is simply not true. If one understands the physics of music, one knows that in addition to the harmonics of musical tones, there exist difference tones. Difference tones are the tones that are produced when, for instance, two tones are sounded simultaeniously, and the difference of those two frequencies is perceived as a third tone. In theory, if music is written, and played on a piano for say, a chord with A-27.5 Hertz as the root, there would be a perceived tone of a frequency considerably below 27.5 Hertz. This would not be necessarily be heard as a seperate tone, but rather as richness and fullness in the overall sound. The existence of these tones, as well as upper harmonics, is one the things that gives music it's richness and complexity.
Having said all that, I would say that in my experience, Quads come closest to capturing the tinbre of a real piano. How can that be possible, given the Quad's limited frequency response? Heck if I know! What it says to me is that there is still a whole lot that we don't understand about this business of record/playback; and that's fine by me. But timbre is only one aspect of reality in music playback. What about dynamics? In my experience, and I don't claim to have heard nearly all the great loudspeakers ever manufactured, Snell Type Aiii's with VTL Wotans got the dynamic impact of a grand piano fairly accurately. The timbre was not even close in accuracy to that of Quads, however. In absolute terms, neither got either timbre or dynamic impact close enough to the real thing to suspend disbelief.
What it all says to me, is that the real thing is, thankfully, so rich and complex that electronics still have a long way to go before "accurate" record/playback is a possibility. I see that as a good thing.
Ritteri, I don't know what not being able to tell which is the Yamaha vs. the Steinway, without prior familiarity proves. I can tell you that most experienced audiophiles, who can tell the difference between MIT and Nordost cabling, would have no trouble discerning the differences between a Yamaha and a Bosendorfer. The differences are actually much more apparent, IMO.
There's nothing like the real thing.
Good listening.
