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What are the best loudspeakers under $4000 to re-create lifelike piano

Over the past 4 months I've spent time with five loudspeakers.  On a scale of 1-10 I'd rate them as follows in their ability (with my equipment in my room) to recreate a lifelike piano.  Tekton Lore - 6.5 (great scale but tonal accuracy and clarity somewhat lacking),    Kef LS50 - 7.0 (moderate scale but slightly better clarity and tonal accuracy)  Kef R500 - 8.0  (great scale and very good clarity and tonal accuracy), Spatial Audio M3TurboS -8.1 (great scale and very good clarity and tonal accuracy and very smooth)  Magnepan 1.7i - 9.0 (very good scale with excellent clarity and tonal accuracy - very lifelike).

In your room with your equipment, what loudspeakers are you listening too and how would you rate them for their ability to recreate a lifelife piano and if possible a few comments as to why?
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Showing 2 responses by bdp24

bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,190 posts
 
philjolet, that $4000 will also buy you a pair of Eminent Technology LFT-8b's and a pair of subs. I would at least check out the ET's before pulling the trigger. Read Robert E. Greene's review in TAS a couple of years back.
bdp24's avatar
bdp24
10,190 posts
 

As always, whart's comments are right on. As for recordings of piano's, direct-to-disk LP's really capture the attack and decay of that instrument like no tape recording I've ever heard. A good piano recording contains an almost instantaneous huge wavefront that instrument creates when struck hard, and reveals the timbre of the instrument changing as it fades away, between notes. The different timbre of specific pianos is a product of the varying levels of the harmonic overtones of the root note---the fundamental. The change in timbre varies amongst different pianos, the relative strengths of fundamental and overtones being unique to each.

IMO, to reproduce the timbre of an instrument with as wide a frequency spectrum as a piano, the loudspeaker itself requires it to have an exceptionally-even octave-to-octave balance. There is no better way to achieve that than to use one driver to reproduce as much of the piano's frequency range as possible, not chop up the keyboard amongst multiple drivers. Achieving even octave-to-octave timbre accuracy via multiple drivers and x/o filters is a very tricky, difficult thing to do. Lifelike timbral reproduction is one reason the original Quad ESL is still as highly regarded as it is. That speaker's ability in that regard remains superior to all but a small handful of competing products, regardless of price!

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