I wonder why there have recently been so many SF Grand Piano Domus speakers for sale on Audiogon and eBay.
I heard the GP at a local dealer's shop last fall. It was driven by the new Bel Canto monoblocks and a Bel Canto preamp. The source was an Ayre X7e CD player.
In that setup, I thought the GPs sounded great in all the usual ways. Like Ghunter, I was impressed by the imaging, but I was struck also by the GP's detail, transparency, and bass response (timpani rolls were well articulated and rocked the room). I liked the noticeably smooth highs as well.
The GPs sounded very similar to Sonus Faber's top of the line floorstander -- which I also heard that evening -- and the GPs sounded much better than their "little brother," the Concerto Domus, which seemed harsh and was perhaps not yet fully broken in. (I returned a week later and heard the Concertos without first listening to the GPs and that time the Concertos sounded quite acceptable to me.)
But maybe my experience is unusual. The number of six-month-old Grand Pianos already up for sale suggests that the GPs impress listeners at first, but fail in the long term. So maybe Ghunter is right.
I heard the GP at a local dealer's shop last fall. It was driven by the new Bel Canto monoblocks and a Bel Canto preamp. The source was an Ayre X7e CD player.
In that setup, I thought the GPs sounded great in all the usual ways. Like Ghunter, I was impressed by the imaging, but I was struck also by the GP's detail, transparency, and bass response (timpani rolls were well articulated and rocked the room). I liked the noticeably smooth highs as well.
The GPs sounded very similar to Sonus Faber's top of the line floorstander -- which I also heard that evening -- and the GPs sounded much better than their "little brother," the Concerto Domus, which seemed harsh and was perhaps not yet fully broken in. (I returned a week later and heard the Concertos without first listening to the GPs and that time the Concertos sounded quite acceptable to me.)
But maybe my experience is unusual. The number of six-month-old Grand Pianos already up for sale suggests that the GPs impress listeners at first, but fail in the long term. So maybe Ghunter is right.