When I got my Magnepan 1.7s almost five years ago, I was stunned by their realistic presentation of piano. Hearing piano through Maggies often cause me to turn my head in reaction to look at the piano that isn't there. I Googled to find some corroboration and I found this TAS review of the Magnepan 20.7, in which Jonathan Valin wrote:
I know what concert pianos sound like. I worked for a high end piano store that carried Steinway, Boesendorfer, Schimmel, Falcone, Mason & Hamlin, Yamaha's concert line, and Seiler. The owners prepped Steinways and Boesendorfers for touring soloists such as Sviatoslov Richter and Victor Borge. In addition, my sister had music degrees from the Cincinnati Conservatory and USC. Her son competed in Russia's Tchaikowsky Piano Competition. My mom was church organist and pianist for about 20 years.
And piano music played through my Maggies create an involuntary response every time--I turn my head to look for the piano.
... (Indeed, I don’t think there is another speaker that makes a well-recorded piano sound more like an actual piano than this Maggie. In part this is because a Maggie’s planar wavelaunch, as Dick Olsher once astutely noted, is similar to the planar wavelaunch of a concert grand, giving the presentation more of the size, volume, and dispersion of the actual thing. In the case of the 20.7 it is also because their bass is so extended, finely textured, and bloomy.)....And that's pretty much what I concluded, too. The large panels approach or equal (depending on which model) the vibrating area of a piano soundboard, and radiates the sound in a pattern similar to that of a grand piano.
I know what concert pianos sound like. I worked for a high end piano store that carried Steinway, Boesendorfer, Schimmel, Falcone, Mason & Hamlin, Yamaha's concert line, and Seiler. The owners prepped Steinways and Boesendorfers for touring soloists such as Sviatoslov Richter and Victor Borge. In addition, my sister had music degrees from the Cincinnati Conservatory and USC. Her son competed in Russia's Tchaikowsky Piano Competition. My mom was church organist and pianist for about 20 years.
And piano music played through my Maggies create an involuntary response every time--I turn my head to look for the piano.