2. music
  3. 1229831897

How to reproduce sound of piano


I currently own a decent rig, Mac MA 2275, AP Sparks, Marantz 8001, Rega Apollo, Benchmark DAC w/ Squeezebox Duet. I love the way it sounds with jazz, voice, orchestral works and also it's decent with chamber music.

But I find when I'm listening to piano solo performances it doesn't quite sound nearly good as the live instrument. This is too bad because I mainly listen to classical piano works. I want to build a new system from scratch dedicated to listen to solo piano works as well as piano conertos.
I don't care for "warmth", "timbre", "soundstage" or other loaded audiophile terms. Just want absolutely accurate piano reproduction as possible.

What qualities should I look for? Analog vs digital source. Solid state vs tube amp? I find my tube amp unable to keep up with technical masters as Pollini or Horowitz. But will going to SS take away from the performces of more romantic pianists like Kempf and Zimerman? As for speakers, I never heard of a speaker capable of reproducing the deep bass of a 9ft+ concert Steinway grand. Are electrostatics way to go? My budget is around $25K USD. Thanks for any feedback.
plaser

Showing 8 responses by mapman

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,636 posts
 
Off the cuff, I'd love to hear a properly functioning pair of full range Ohm Fs sourced from a very good Class D amp like say a Rowland set up properly in a moderately large room with any quality digital or phono front end for a shot at doing piano exceptionally well for reasonable cost.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,636 posts
 
"Grados GS-1000 headphones actually does very good job with piano (much better than speakers)"

Doesn't surprise me.

On the scale at which they must operate to produce realistic SPLs to the ear, the wide range drivers in headphones are physically much better equipped to handle the fast transient dynamics associated with piano string strikes than are most dynamic speakers involving large drivers with higher physical mass.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,636 posts
 
"Krell does a good job on piano"

I've heard the $2500 Krell integrated do a very respectable job on piano music with Martin Logans.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,636 posts
 
Plaser,

If I were you, I'd focus on getting the right speakers to accomplish your goals first and build the rest of the system around those. The reason is that, particularly in the case of piano, the speakers present practically the most limiting factor to achieve what you want.

The APs are very good speaks TTBOMK. So have you ever heard piano on a system with a totally different speaker design, say Magnepan Planars or Martin Logan electrostats or even MBL or Ohm omnis or pseudo omnis?

I think auditioning radically different speaker designs might be the place to start looking for a radically better sound.

Then put the other pieces in place needed to drive those speakers optimally with good range and dynamics.

Make sure the speakers fit the size of the room they will go into properly. If the room is not too big, you should be able to find an ideal system to do the trick in it optimally for less.

After speakers, the other thing to look into, if needed, is to determine whether vinyl floats your boat better for piano than digital in general.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,636 posts
 
Sogood51's idea is a good one I believe!
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,636 posts
 
I'd try playing with current speaker location 1st as SoGood suggested because that's easiest and no cost.

Try to listen with them out away from rear and side walls for better imaging and in order to allow those beautiful piano key strikes some breathing room with which to reverberate .

The next step if things are looking up at that point (good chance) might be adding the sub(s) to fill in the low end.

mapman's avatar
mapman
22,636 posts
 
Hevac1,

Listening in mono is an excellent idea also!

The mike placement during recording of solo piano pieces varies greatly from recording to recording it seems and is often done for enhancement of stereo effect at cost perhaps of a more natural presentation as one might hear located within optimal listening distance of several feet of the piano. Stereo may not offer much other than an unnatural perspective in this case. If so, who needs it.

Maybe this is part of why other genres sound real enough but solo piano doesn't?

If your pre-amp has mono switching, try that...it's easy

Also, most recordings have compressed dynamics to some extent compared to live. Adding and properly applying a dynamic range enhancement device like say a dbx 3bx series 3 or 4bx will make a diffence in recordings where the dynamics just ain't there to start with.
mapman's avatar
mapman
22,636 posts
 
Try staying in stereo but moving the speakers closer together than you might otherwise to better represent the actual width of the recorded piano.

Just another idea...
More to discover