Best speaker/system piano concerts

https://www.audiogon.com/listings/lis90da0-bosendorfer-vc-7-monitors

tomic6011,018 posts06-26-2018 8:03pma good reason for attending church choir practice

sit on the bench and three other places and you will get religion, and then a mic feed listen will turn you into an athiest..

ha.

Great post, lol.  Lot's of great choices.  It's often harder to find a great used speakers at the upper levels unless they company comes out with new models every few years and then they become devalued and folks feel the need to upgrade right away, because they are able to.  

When I was ready for a new system, I just auditioned everything I was able to regardless of cost.  What I found was that a good speaker is just that....good.  It will play anything properly to MY EAR.  If a speaker seems to only be good at one or two genres, then it's time to move on.  Too many good choices out there depending on your flavor. 

If you chose to use only piano for auditions, you may be greatly disappointed over the long run.  It's kind of like buying a TV.  Brightest one wins, but months later you don't watch as much or enjoy as much...why?  Because you aren't watching at those bright levels at home.  Same with speakers.  Many are highly dynamic, but lack micro and macro detail which is where the emotion is located.  The problem is that they aren't time and phase correct and you get smearing.  Can't cheat physics regardless of what 'fixes' or 'tuning' you try.  Is what it is.  I'm not saying only time and phase correct speakers are good, but to get the fast transients from a piano or to get that proper decay of the string and the percussive attack of the hammer, for ME, I need a time and phase correct speaker.  

I got Vandersteen's, but there are a few others that are also very good.  I do like some speakers that aren't time adn phase correct, but I always just keep coming back to the Vandersteen's (for my ears) as I like the compromises he has made (every speaker makes compromises).  

In your price range, you really should find a shop you trust and listen to the speaker and electronics together.  Just became a certain speaker is great, if you pair it with another 5 star amp, it may not be comparable.  I personally need a zero feedback amp due to teh way VAndy's are engineered.  YMMV.  Good luck.

The one who wrote avoid speakers that use polypropylene or Kevlar type drivers for woofers/midrange. Also avoid Morel/Dynaudio type speakers is 100% completely wrong.

@exron   

May be wrong but I happen to agree as I hear issues with these drivers.

Any speaker that is free of artifacts and has enough power behind it will do the job. You can't build a speaker that favors a certain instrument- that is like making a speaker that favors a certain kind of musical taste. Speakers don't care about that, they are a collection of parts that make sound and can't express taste on their own. This however is the most persistent speaker myth in the world.
IOW a speaker that is really good at piano will be really good at black metal, jazz, classical and Chinese pipa.

To reproduce pianos, like an orchestra or modern rock band, you need to make sound pressure without distortion or coloration; there needs to be enough clean power driving the speaker to do the job. If your electronics have issues, a good speaker will simply reveal that. IOW you need a good amp too, and amps don't have any taste either.