|
Audio Asylum Thread Printer Get a view of an entire thread on one page |
For Sale Ads |
What speakers get your vote to recreate the sound of a grand piano with all the slam, clarity, dynamic contrast and soundstage? If you close your eyes, you'll convinced there's a grand piano right in front of you.
Follow Ups:
Living Voice Avatar's powered by Hoveland Sapphire amp and Hoveland preamp off a Linn Sondek table with a Grace 707 arm (unknown cart). A shop owner's personal system in his living room. Outstanding piano (and most other things as well).
Loth-X horns ( Polaris model ) and a single-ended Song Audio tube amp at the Montreal Festival of Sound and Vision last year. I had never heard piano sound so realistic, the dynamics, attack, timbre and air were... words fail me. ( I hate that. ) I therefore reckon that the ultimate has to be the top-of-the-line Loth-X Barde, and I want two and a bigger house.
Avantgarde Duos driven by tubes (Quad IIs and Verdier control B tube preamp) and a top end vinyl setup (Platine Verdier, Schroeder model 2 Allaerts MC1B).
-
Cost no object: Soundlab U-1 or Westlake HR-7.
Cost concerns: I heard the maggie wall-hangers at the 2004CES in a multi-channel jazz vid (Diana Krall live at Paris). I belive they used ARC h/t electonics and the Teac/Esoteric universal digital playback. From the lower mids through the highs the piano had air, clarity, and attack which made the piano sound incredibly life like. Typically, to me, Maggies in general lack dynamics and punch in the mids. But, maybe the planets were alligned just right; anyway, for the $$$, the piano was incredible.
Regards, Jerry O.
Of course, their performance with Steinways, Bechsteins, etc., is not assured. ;-)
Dahlquist DQ-10s. Most convincing reproduction of piano I've ever heard.
Agreed!!!The DQ-10s have that ethreal midrange for piano that I've heard in only a few different models (and costing MUCH more, IMHO!).
They also do acoustic guitar VERY well, again IMHO!
Cheers,
Dman
GREAT GEAR DESTROYER!!!
With or without cap and/or woofer upgrades?
These are very early s/ns (under 1100), not mirror-imaged and the only mod is that I put a Solen cap in the midrange circuit. It made a slight improvement in clarity. I made solid stands for them-they came with those three tiny feet-and the stands raise them 7 inches, a very significant improvement.
I'm taking the X-overs out and sending them to Regnar for a cap& new wire upgrade. Then on to new binding posts and new pots. Finished off with complete woofer rebuilds. These IMHO are worthy of the extra $$ put it to them. They really shine thru my digital Sony TA-N80ES spontaneous twin drive amp @ 220 WPC into 8 ohms. We shall see what the upgrade does. At least for sure they will be more reliable over the next 10 years!
I have been trying to get my most recent pair of DIY speakers back into the "lab" for two months. Too busy. But while I wait, they are in the bedroom on the Marantz 2270. Interesting thing has been happening.I know these have a little too much energy in the 600-1000 range and intend to bring them down. Many if not most speakers have a small drop in this range as it can make speakers a little peakey. This area holds a lot of detail but can cause listener fatigue. Anyway, I noticed all my piano CDs are suddenly on the top of the pile. What I figured out is that these speakers really bring out pianos and sound great with them. They have great hammer attack and that nice brightness so many speakers kill on pianos. But on the other hand, non-piano music sounds a little bright and I get tired after a while.
So what I am saying is if you want speakers for piano, find some that excel in this range. But you might pay for it with brightness in other areas. Again, I have noticed the current "tuning" in speakers is to have a small hump in the 90-300 range and then a wide dip between 600-3000. Some call this the BBC dip. The result is a slightly warmer speaker with tweeter coming back in the upper range and giving some airiness. But pianos have a lot going on in the dipped range and I think that instrument suffers more than others with the BBC dip.
If you live in the DC area you can come hear what I am talking about.
I'd have to vote for well powered, properly positioned big Maggies (1.6 or larger).
mm
Piano recordings are probably my most important test when auditioning audio equipment.In my opinion, very very few systems can reproduce piano recordings well. I've only heard one system that I thought scored a passing grade. It comprised Nagra electronics and Avantgarde Duo speakers. Immediately after that audition I put the same recording on a system comprising top-end Mark Levinson electronics and the Revel Ultima Salon. It sounded so veiled in comparison that my attempts to capture even a little of the same "live" feeling of the Avantgarde/Nagra system made me turn the volume up so high that the transients started to distort in a very obvious way. I've heard much more expensive systems fail in similarly miserable ways.
At my price range, the Dynaudio Special 25 was the best I could find, and after a year I feel that it is indeed one of the great speakers. But I still must give it a failing grade on piano.
They do piano better than any speaker I have heard. The exception may be the Ultimate Soundlabs. Hopefully you will have 1000 watt Shoreline tube amps on hand as well.
Carolina Audio JTM seem to fit the bill."The JTMs were chosen as the
Reference Monitors at the 5th
Annual International Piano
Completion at Hilton Head
Island, SC Oct 31 to Nov 2
2003"*from the Carolina Audio Website
Greetings MM,Tried to e-mail you through the Asylum, but it bounced.
I live in New Orleans, so I have a chance to hear some pretty decent live music from time to time. One day in a Barnes & Noble bookstore this pianist was playing some fantastic stuff on an upright piano. His name was Seth Kaufman, and I bought one of his discs.
I liked the disc a lot, so later went to hear him play at a local jazz club. This time he was playing a Yamaha grand piano, and omigod it sounded just like the one on the CD over my demo system! I thought it couldn't be the same one, because the recording had been made two thousand miles away in Los Angeles. But just the same at the end of the concert I went up to him and asked him if that was the same piano he'd used to record "Circling Noon". He said yes indeed it was - he'd had his personal piano crated up and trucked all the way to Los Angeles for the recording session!
So, what were the speakers that recreated the sound of Seth Kaufman's Yamaha grand so convincingly? Well, I was going to tell you in that e-mail that bounced. Asylum rules would frown on my posting it here (I'm probably treading a thin line as it is), so I guess you'll have to e-mail me.
Anyway, whatever direction your quest takes you, best of luck!
.
________________________
defy convention - make music
"Lound Sab".By the way, Steve, anything pop into your head that you'd care to, ah, "unveil"??
Cheers!
Was it the Bristol Show that you're referring to or did you get wind of Paul Messenger's review in Hi-Fi+ magazine (blush)?Steve
________________________
defy convention - make music
Was it the A1 or M1. thanks
.
The best I have heard are Vandersteen 5's and Montana EPX'sThe challenge is getting the timbre's right from top to bottom and reproducing the dynamics. Piano can really highlight crossover/driver integration issues. It takes very good amps to drive them as well.
Reproducing piano accurately is a challenge. I have recently built the Linkwitz Orions which, at a bargain price, reproduce piano and any other music, with astonishing accuracy and intemate engagement throughout the entire range, with all nuances including the pianists breathing. They are well worth an audition.
The best I've heard were huge Apogee ribbon planar speakers with matching subs driven by hi-end Denon electronics at a show many years ago.
This post is made possible by the generous support of people like you and our sponsors: