How to reproduce sound of piano

Dave (Sogood) said

Detlof

I guess I just don't find subwoofers, that complicated an animal to tame.

Actually the complexity Detlof refers to may stem from his use of 2x the product we usually refer to as "sub-woofer" (one as woof, the other as subwoof) AND a super-tweet which enhances the lower register when done right.

Generalising, this set up seems the best so far as things stand (and as far as I can tell, which may not be very far): one "full range" speaker. This will be used to cover, as well as possible, the range between ¬100 - 10kHz give or take some.
THEN, you need to go down & to go up.
Especially if you want to reproduce piano which, in the unlikely event of a good recording, will play percussively from ¬17Hz up there with the dogs if not bats.

IMO Detlof's approach, i.e. to add both an upper tweet is most opportune. I've tried it myself, with outstanding results.
Thereafter the two separate units to deal with the 2-3 bass octaves is an excellent way of dealing with a difficult subject; it seems that Sogood is doing the same thing with his 4x external woof units.

Couldn't such a set up be replicated in a cheaper version?

Hi Shadorne, Great article that I had not seen before. It helps explain a few thing I have thoughts about. And confirming others.

Bob

I have a slightly different perspective on how a piano should sound - from the keyboard. Yes, I play.

I've often found that someone who listens at concerts to a piano on a stage has a very different view of what that piano should sound like than someone who sits and listens in their home, or from someone who (like myself) sits behind the keyboard and plays.

There's so many different recordings of piano with such differing results. My personal favorites tend to be the ones that sound like I hear it when I play. I tend to like recordings by Herbie Hancock, Chic Corea and a few others for this very reason. Others may have different opinions, of course.

Good luck with your quest,
Bob

Jax,

The lowest pitched key on a typical piano is tuned to 27.5 hz. Bosendorfer makes a 96 key grand which adds an extra octave of bass - so the spec you cited is about right. Now, finding a recording which contains that information is another story!

IMHO, use of subs is appropriate to this instrument - and good digital pianos are often demo'd with subs for this very reason. It's certainly possible that there's a full range speaker out there which will reproduce the lowest notes of a full grand without compromising the rest of the response, but I believe that you've got a lot better shot at success if you use a sub, or a speaker with a built-in sub for this application.

As to the room - this is always a limitation to loudspeaker perfomance, particularly in the bass region. There are other contributors here who are more technically informed on the subject, but I can say that flat frequency response into the mid 20hz range is acheivable in a reasonably sized room. I have eq'd to this performance (and measured it) with subs and a Velodyne SMS-1 sub controller/PEq/room analyzer. I've also heard this response with quality pipe organ recordings. Honestly, that feels a bit like a parlor trick, but the SMS/sub combo really does a great job on the lowest octave of my best piano recordings.

Marty

Oops!

I just looked at the photo of Plaser's room. As per Emily Litella...never mind!

Marty

PS - For those interested, Synthology software makes a program called Ivory, which contains hypersampled "voices" of 3 pianos for use with a midi keyboard controller and audio system (digital piano). One of the pianos is the 96 key Bosendorfer.