Speakers that do pianos really well


I recently had the good fortune to listen to a half a dozen pretty well-regarded speakers back-to-back. For these kind of sessions I like using piano recordings - either solo or jazz trio - as a measure because, to my ear at least, it seems that speakers that can reproduce piano really well seem to be pretty well sorted on everything else. The surprising thing was how many of these speakers did NOT do piano well. Of the group there were only two - Vandersteen and Verity - that I thought really captured the big chords, shadings, timbres, and reverberations cleanly and naturally. The rest - and I'm not going to call them out by name - offered a mixed bag of over-brightness, distortion, and general unnaturalness. I was very surprised by the results as I expected better from some of these speakers based on their reviews and reputations. So my question is, Does anyone else use the piano as a litmus test, and what speakers do people use that they think do pianos really well? Regards.
grimace

Showing 2 responses by kiwi_1282001

Hi Grimace,

Were the "half a dozen pretty well-regarded speakers" you tried back-to-back in your system, a dealer system or a mix of systems?

I've found that Piano is a great work out for any speaker, though we must remember we are listening to a system rather than just a speaker as Zd542 points out.

Over the years I've made three observations about piano reproduction. First, we tend to underestimate the amount of bass needed to cleanly reproduce low left keys. Recordings with low C can be revealing. Second, since a hammer is hitting a string and that string oscillates it is always revealing to listen to note decay. If your overall system and room has a low noise floor then the overtones seem to sustain for a considerable period. Third, piano and valve amplifiers seem to be a match made in heaven!

08-06-13: Bigkidz
IMO the sound from your speakers has much to do with your preamp. Decay, heft to the notes, blending, can all be attributed back to the preamp.

More to do with how your loudspeakers interact with the room i'd say. Remember here, your listening room is a like a giant tone control.