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Speakers that do pianos really well

I recently had the good fortune to listen to a half a dozen pretty well-regarded speakers back-to-back. For these kind of sessions I like using piano recordings - either solo or jazz trio - as a measure because, to my ear at least, it seems that speakers that can reproduce piano really well seem to be pretty well sorted on everything else. The surprising thing was how many of these speakers did NOT do piano well. Of the group there were only two - Vandersteen and Verity - that I thought really captured the big chords, shadings, timbres, and reverberations cleanly and naturally. The rest - and I'm not going to call them out by name - offered a mixed bag of over-brightness, distortion, and general unnaturalness. I was very surprised by the results as I expected better from some of these speakers based on their reviews and reputations. So my question is, Does anyone else use the piano as a litmus test, and what speakers do people use that they think do pianos really well? Regards.
grimace
joefish's avatar
joefish
66 posts
 
I find that my Ohm 1000's are by far the most satisfying speaker I've heard in terms of their reproduction of piano. Other speakers that I've owned made all piano sound about the same. The Ohms bring out textures, timbres, harmonics, and details that let me hear clear differences between pianos. It's much like being able to hear the difference between a Stratocaster and a Les Paul. These speakers have actually caused me to buy more piano based music. The Ohms are excellent all around speakers, but my 1000's absolutely shine when it comes to piano. Joe
hamburger
132 posts
 
Let me respond by saying that these speakers made techno, trance, electronica unlistenable to me, but played super fantastically on piano music!

http://www.brodmannacoustics.com

;)
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,179 posts
 
Agree OHMs set up well are hard to beat for piano.
marqmike
839 posts
 
Hamburger
I feel also that that those speakers sounded absolutely fantastic on piano. I have never heard piano better, and not very good otherwise. I have never heard such a disparity before. I was wondering if I was the only one that thought that.
bojack
650 posts
 
I have owned Frieds, Spendor 2/3Es, and 1/2Es (still own), and they all do piano very, very well, especially the 1/2Es. The key, IMO, is to get a speaker that has superb driver integration, proper weight in the midbass, is not too hot on top, and then pair that with amplification that allows for all of those harmonics to reach your speakers. I think tubes help, too. I recently went from all SS to all tube, and MAN, piano sounds so much more real.
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