Why not the piano as a reference for bass

One of the interesting things about the piano is that the pianist’s ’touch’ does not alter the harmonics present in the note being struck.  The best example I can give of this is the astonishing recording of Grieg’s Piano Concerto released in multiple surround sound formats by the Norwegian label 2L.no - see GRIEG Piano Concerto - Percy Grainger, Kristiansand Symfoniorkester, R – 2L Music Store

Originally recorded on piano rolls in 1921, the new recording has a full symphony orchestra and a modern Steinway piano, played mechanically!

This is one of those unusual recordings where both the performance and the sound quality are superb.  Percy Grainger was a very interesting character, being Australian, a pianist, a composer, an athlete and a sadomasochist.  His ideal instruments would have been synthesizers, but they were yet to be invented.

I can’t let this go without mentioning the Australian designed and built Stuart and Sons’ Concert Grand Pianos, some of which extend the ’standard’ 88 note keyboard to 108 keys with the lowest note a subsonic 16-Hz

@audiokinesis 

I was once tasked with designing a speaker system for amplifying electric piano

No doubt the electric piano was attempting to sound like a real piano?  When I play the lowest note on an acoustic piano, the amount of sound energy output is pretty directly related to how quickly I press the key.  There is no artificial limit, and no shortage of sound either.

The key mechanism is mechanical, not some electronic switch or sensor.  And the whole piano resonates

@richardbrand , my investigation into the loudness of the fundamentals and first few overtones of the lowest piano notes was based on the spectra of those notes played on a grand piano, as I figured that would be applicable to amplified electric piano.

I presume the electric piano was "attempting to sound like a real piano".  My  customer said that he used the same model electric piano as Elton John.  He mentioned it to me but I don't remember the specific model.  I think it was a Yamaha. 

@audiokinesis 

Thanks for the clarification!

I don’t agree that the low notes on a modern grand piano (piano-forte or soft-loud) contain so little energy that they do not merit being reproduced.  Bosendorfer and Stuart keep extending the keyboard downwards!  I don’t think Beethoven would have agreed either - he was very quick to extend the range he wrote for when gifted pianos which went further up and down!

There is of course a fundamental difficulty in judging sound quality against amplified sources - there is no original to compare to.

Anyway, I use soft piano music to judge atmospherics and double bass for bass impact ... but the main thing is to enjoy your music

@richardbrand wrote: "I don’t agree that the low notes on a modern grand piano (piano-forte or soft-loud) contain so little energy that they do not merit being reproduced.  Bosendorfer and Stuart keep extending the keyboard downwards!"

Just to be clear, I’m not saying that the lowest notes on a normal grand piano contain so little energy that they do not merit being reproduced. 

I’m saying that the lowest fundamentals (and sometimes the corresponding first overtones) of the lowest notes of a non-Bosendorfer grand piano contain so little energy that they do not merit being reproduced in a live music setting. 

I don’t know whether this is a grand piano or not, but it shows the spectra of the lowest notes starting with A0.  Pause it after each note and look at how much energy is in the fundamental and first overtone:

piano sound spectrum - YouTube

Anyone else interested in why piano might or might not be a good instrument for evaluating a speaker’s bass response is invited to do the same.   There’s just not a whole lot of true low bass energy.