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Best speakers for piano music

D

DanCheet

Noobie forever
Hey all,

I usually find myself listening to a lot of piano music (keith jarrett, etc).

Right now, My Apogee Centaur Minor's have been holding down the duty, but in the never ending quest for "more" I'm seeking advice...

Possibly instead of giving reccomendations, a speaker profile would also be great.

(mid range hump, etc).

Happy listening! Oh and right now... ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yYxx6Brhm1E )
 
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I have always liked horn based large format two ways for piano and most anything else. Big JBL's, Altecs, Klipsch, Edgarhorns and the like.
 
The best speaker I ever heard for piano were Duntech Sovereigns, and their Crown Prince model, too. Big and heavy and uber expensive. That was when I worked for one of the dozen American Duntech dealers.

Edit: JGordon below makes a very valid point. For the upstream electronics we were using the very TOTL ARC tube monobloc amps with the SP-11 pre-amp. It was good stuff and good synergy, too, A Well-Tempored TT was the source...always wanted one of those.
 
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I don't have a broad body of experience, but I've been truly impressed with the way my Monitor Audios handle piano. Monitor Audio RS6.

That said, I think a lot of it comes down to upstream gear and synergy throughout the system. So it's not necessarily speakers "for piano" as much as it's speakers "for your system."
 
I really love the sound of a well tuned piano- usually speaking I have found speakers with dome midranges, crossed over properly, have just the right timbre and overall sound to capture and properly reprocuce the complex piano sound. The Yamaha NS 1000 is one that stands out in my mind as were some ADS types.
DC
 
The best speakers are the most accurate speakers. That said, you should be considering other things like cost and size. So you should ask, like this, "what smaller bookshelf type speakers up to $500 for the pair will sound best for piano music?"
 
Dave1027 said:
The best speakers are the most accurate speakers. That said, you should be considering other things like cost and size. So you should ask, like this, "what smaller bookshelf type speakers up to $500 for the pair will sound best for piano music?"
Click to expand...

I'm leaning towards Bolero's for inexpensive ones.


Steve
 
Dave1027 said:
The best speakers are the most accurate speakers. That said, you should be considering other things like cost and size. So you should ask, like this, "what smaller bookshelf type speakers up to $500 for the pair will sound best for piano music?"
Click to expand...

In this category, maybe Paradigm SE 3 Mini's. If you want to go vaulting over 500 bucks, the best I ever heard and this is for solo piano, were Dynaudio Contour 1.1.
 
Once you get around the problem of finding a recording that actually does a good job on piano, I agree that BIG is better. Good large grand pianos have a huge dynamic range and a surprising amount of bass. Unless you actually had the opportunity to play a 9.5ft Bosendorfer Imperial, you might not know this.

I think any of the big modern JBL's should be able to do it justice. But also some of the larger dipoles like the Apogee's and newer non-planar active dipoles should be decent too. I've personally heard piano on a Apogee Duetta and that sure was something.
 
alandro said:
In this category, maybe Paradigm SE 3 Mini's. If you want to go vaulting over 500 bucks, the best I ever heard and this is for solo piano, were Dynaudio Contour 1.1.
Click to expand...

Hey! I have those! Farthest thing from big. (the 3se mini)

Haven't heard them though, waiting for new foam to come in. I'll have to try some piano when they're back in shape!
 
Beveridge System 3 speakers....bar none....never heard it sound so real as when I had those setup. I have had a lot of different speakers with different designs and nothing ever came close to touching those for piano.
 
Yeah, the sound is also very open and large (massive resonating soundboard), but also very subtle and dynamic...I've always though that omnidirectional speakers (maybe Ohm f's) would do the sound justice as well...

(currently looking at Apogee Duettas online...opening a can of worms...)
 
My pair of Thiel CS3.6's probably did piano music better than any other speaker I've owned. I no longer own the Thiels, but that should tell you how highly I regarded them for piano music.





Retro
 
4seatPilot said:
Hey! I have those! Farthest thing from big. (the 3se mini)

Haven't heard them though, waiting for new foam to come in. I'll have to try some piano when they're back in shape!
Click to expand...

I only mentioned these in response to "Dave's" suggestion of a smaller bookshelf type speaker, which I quoted. I don't have the Dynaudio's anymore but if you closed your eyes you wouldn't think they were nearly as small as they were.
 
Oh, this one is easy for me. Magnepan MMG if on a budget and your room will allow it. If budget/room is of no concern then I suppose I'd be looking at bigger/true ribbon equipped planar speakers.

The dipole design really does justice to the piano. If you can get them positioned properly and mate them with proper amplification they will put the piano in the room. Pedal noise, soft "click" of the keys....it's all there.

In fact, so impressive was their performance with piano I went out and started buying piano music. :yes:
 
Picking up on the Altec recommendations, one of the best reproductions I've _ever_ heard is from a pair of Altec 604Gs mated to UREI time-aligned crossovers. Driven by good tube electronics, these were quite impressive to someone who's played a bit on larger grands as part of music school classes. Much of this, however, goes to the recording itself - good ones are really excellent as you can't mask poorly mic'd or prepared source material.

Cheers,

David
 
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