Recomendation for speakers BEST for Piano?

To get back to what Gileon said, I must agree that the Thiel CS1.5's are very enjoyable on piano. I have heard the CS1.6's, and while the focus has certainly been bumped up a notch, I wouldn't necessarily call them more musical. Of course, I did not get to A/B them directly, and it had been some time since I had heard the CS1.5's. However, with regard to larger Thiels, I own a pair of CS3.6's, and I find them to be very enjoyable on piano, with good lower register reproduction (and I am an upright and electric bass player, so I like clean, tight, accurage lows).

I must add, though, that my father-in-law has a pair of CS.5's (which I helped him pick out, thank you) that are simply amazing for the money. Sure, they are frequency limited, but match them up with a good sub or two, and they can hold their own against speakers several times their price. The greatest thing about these particular speakers is that they really got my father-in-law back into listening to, and enjoying music (mostly piano). Of course, my mother-in-law is not so thrilled, but hey, you can't please everybody.

Later, Tom.

As I was reading a review in Absolute Sound, they were mentioning that the suckout that comes from adding a subwoofer to 2 ch music playback systems and the mayhem it causes, may not make it worthwhile to add subs, unless you can have 2 (due to phasing issues), and a 4th order xover....they argue that most 2nd order xovers included in most hardware doesnt do the job at all, and they actually have changing "Q's" as you adjust the freq cutoff./

Have you guys with subs measured your curve lately?

I've found that my system reproduces lifelike piano music. I prefer SACD recordings of piano, though some CD labels can get pretty close (Reference Recordings, Chesky, JVCXRCD, Emil Berliner Studios etc).

We have a 1976 Kawaii grand that my wife teaches on in the studio. It has a very pleasing tone, though the action is a little heavy for small hands. I love the music that a piano is capable of.

My SACD's are sourced through a Denon DVD 2900 "hybrid" player, CD through Cambridge Audio DiscMagic/S700 DAC combination, with Creek 5350SE amplification, Totem Forest speakers and Wireworld Atlantis cables throughout.

IMO the transducer is only part of the equation in optimizing the realism of the reproduction of acoustic music. If you truly want to accurately reproduce acoustic instruments, you need to optimize source, amplification and the transducer.

I've yet to hear a recording of a piano that sounds "the same" as our piano. Given that I haven't hired a professional to come in and record our piano in its space to create a fair "test", that isn't too surprising. Having said that, I am totally satisfied by the realism offered by my modest stereo system.

Jsuso, you are correct; the use of subwoofers is problematic. Piano recordings are particularly good at demonstrating just how difficult it is to integrate a sub into a quality system. The timbral "sameness" of the piano throughout it's wide frequency range, make the problems at the "crossover" points, very obvious. I use a REL Strata III with three very different speakers (Stax F-81, Maggie IIIA's, Genesis IM8300), and while the added fullness that the REL contributes is, at times, appreciated, I am always aware of the fact that the lower frequencies are reproduced by a very different, and in the case of the Stax and Maggies, much slower transducer.

dmmcgregor, nice post. I agree, point for point. The issue is really about being satisfied. We don't need perfection to achieve that.

Best.

Hey Frogman, how do you know that the expanded soundstage added by your subwoofer isn't due to the 0.2msec delay between the sub and your mains at 80 Hz? Or the phase shift between running a mono sub with binaural mains? Why are you so sure that it's due to 20 Hz "undertones" that only a nearly inactive subwoofer can produce? Do you really think these practically inaudible tones are present on redbook CDs? As a recovering subwoofer user my opinions on this matter could be suspect but I offer them honestly. Jsujo is absolutely correct but Sam Tellig says it best in the current 12/03 Stereophile (p.36, col.2, p6): "Deep bass is almost always more trouble than it's worth." Free your ears from the tyranny of frequency response. Try going "subless"!