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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
jakegt3
40 posts
 
YES, I listen to a lot of classical music with piano and I also find piano to be an excellent test of a speaker's coherence, tonal balance, and midrange accuracy. I find many highly touted speakers tend to sound thin and tinny on piano. I'm curious which Verity model you liked. I have the SF Cremona M and it does piano really well--in fact, midrange reproduction in general is its strong suit.
wtf's avatar
wtf
307 posts
 
Maggies seem to get piano right IMO (I own the humble MMGs). They present a very convincing scale and tone.
skoczylas's avatar
skoczylas
240 posts
 
I was very surprised to find my tekton lore s speakers reproduce solo piano and jazz combos very well. I heard they were a live rock speaker, with a forward sound, but I find the balance, tone and timbers actually favor jazz trios and solo classical piano. I wouldn't have guessed this but it was a pleasant surprise. I grew up with a Steinway 7 grand in the living room, and these get pretty close.
secretguy
1,695 posts
 
Maggies.
kernelbob
51 posts
 
Piano is a great litmus test of speakers. Done right, you should feel the power and weight of the bass registers, but with clarity and detail. I suggest the Santiago Rodriguez performances of Rachmaninov (try Elan #CD42412). Check out track #2. On the sustained bass notes, you can hear the sympathetic waves of string vibrations roll up and down. This is a great test of bass realism for the whole system. The first time I heard this cut, I found myself holding my breath at the end. Speakrs were/are Von Schweikert VR6, VR5-Anniversary, and VR100XS.
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