Speakers for High-End Digital Piano


Hello,

I have a high-end digital piano (Kawai MP8II). The keyboard is in a dedicated living room with a hardwood floor, couch, chairs, windows (no drapes) and high-ceiling. The room (approx 800 sq ft) can seat about 15 people. Uses: for solo piano playing (classical, some jazz/contemporary) and classical chamber music. Requirements -- speakers that would produce warm acoustic realism to hypersampled piano sounds (i'm using Ivory II American Concert Steinway D & Kawai EX Pro). I have tested several active/powered speakers (Mackie, JBL, Yamaha) and have not found them satisfactory.

Two questions:

1. Which mid to high-end floor-standing speakers would you recommend (budget is $4,000).
2. What kind of peripherals would I need (e.g., cables, amplifier, etc) to connect the digital piano to the speakers. The piano outputs have "R, L/mono" and fixed XLR R & L.
koncherto

Showing 2 responses by jocar37

I'm hoping to revive this thread to see what your thoughts are on the best piano speakers currently on the market.  A lot has happened in the last 5 years (Barbetta apparently folded), so I'm curious what people have tried recently, what you liked or didn't like.
Thanks for your answer, Duke.

I'm only looking at home use now.  For use with my Kawai VPC1, which ain't exactly portable.

I'm thinking $1000 as the top end.  Genelec seems to be well regarded and has several models within that limit - as well as a few that go quite beyond it.  But I'm open to suggestion.