Any Magnepan fans amongst us -?

[Chris A]

If speakers can reproduce piano sound accurately, everything else is usually no problem. And I agree with you the range of the timbre stresses a sound system to the max especially with overtones, decay and such, and the dynamic range of a piano from ppp to fff is really hard for speakers to reproduce.

 

 

One of the reasons why I posted the EQ curve, above, is that you'll be hard pressed to find an "accurate" recording of a concert grand, such as a Steinway D-274.  I recommend opening up your favorite piano recording(s) using an audio editing program of your choice, and looking at their cumulative frequency spectra.  I believe that if you're talking about a classical recording, I'd bet a dollar to a dime that the recording will need correction like the curve above in order to restore its LF octaves below middle C, which are, as a strong statistic, severely attenuated.  Further, I've found the the HF spectra above middle C is also slightly attenuated. 

 

Once you restore these octave bands, the recordings simply come to life, in my experience.

 

As far as the overtones and decays of the piano: I've found the piano's sound to be second only to the pipe organ in terms of sensitivity to changes in its frequency spectrum via EQ.  One of the YouTube episodes on unmastering that I've been planning includes an entire video dedicated to showing how to unmaster solo piano and orchestral recordings, whose target spectra after unmastering don't look like a 1/f decreasing slope frequency response curve, much like rock and other genres do.  Once you get the hang of it, it gets much easier to handle these type of recordings.

 

One more point: the time delay issues of the Khorn, and by design of the tweeter/midrange alignments physically, the La Scala, Belle, Cornwall, and Heresy, are noted as affecting the sound of pianos and solo female vocalists by Richard Heyser in his 1986 review of the Khorn, which is so often referred to on this forum (it was an eye-opening review).  Once you clean up the time delay mismatches, the sound of the pianos and voices become very natural sounding.  One way to do this is to simply move the tweeter outside of its cabinet to the top of the loudspeaker, placing it into a small baffle, then you can move the tweeter around until it's aligned with the midrange driver--using only your ears to listen for alignment.

 

YMMV.

 

Chris

Edited December 21, 2015 by Chris A

[Marvel]

As you point out, I think it is as big a problem with how pianos are recorded. It would be nice to know the specifics for given albums or tracks, just so you would have a point of reference, i.e., the piano on Bridge Over Troubled Waters, they took the top off the piano and suspended a single mic 15 feet above it. But that detail wasn't mentioned in the liner notes, but in an article I found in a recording/engineering mag.

Bruce

[Quiet_Hollow]

As you point out, I think it is as big a problem with how pianos are recorded.

Piezo pickups affixed to the soundboard are a god send in that regard. They yield an extremely intimate recording when DI'd....hair-raising

 

Unfortunately, many people either don't know or simply won't use them for the application.

Edited December 21, 2015 by Quiet_Hollow

[Chris A]

...the piano on Bridge Over Troubled Waters, they took the top off the piano and suspended a single mic 15 feet above it

 

Yikes...not many people that I know of listen to pianos from that position.  That's also a bit far away from the piano--isn't it?

 

No wonder why it sounded so strange.

[Krispy Kirk]

I've heard a few different Magnepans over the past 30+ years and they always sounded...pleasant to my ears.  It's easy to hear why electrostatic loudspeakers (ESLs) are so popular: they get phase correct and can image like a holodeck.  But...  If you are into rock, funk, fusion, metal, EDM, hip hop, or any kind of electronic heavily produced pop music, you will get bored with Magnepans pretty quick.  You also might want to stock up on watts, those things are power-hungry.

 

That said, the most amazingly awesome in-store listening experience I've ever had was about 20 years ago with a pair of Sound Lab Pristines.  Gigantic soundstage, totally 3D imaging, and more detailed than anything I'd ever heard; those speakers had everything that I wanted at the time plus they sounded great with rock music.  Unfortunately, I had neither the cash nor the space for them.

 

If you handed me $2500 today and said "buy some good flat speakers!" I'd trot down to the stereo store and grab those MartinLogan Theos that I've been lusting after for years.  They aren't super picky about amps or rooms, and, thanks to being a hybrid (each panel sits on a woofer in a box), they do dynamics and punch better than most ESLs.

[Marvel]

As you point out, I think it is as big a problem with how pianos are recorded.

Piezo pickups affixed to the soundboard are a god send in that regard. They yield an extremely intimate recording when DI'd....hair-raising

Unfortunately, many people either don't know or simply won't use them for the application.

Except they rarely sound like a piano. Intimate is five feet away, even down to a couple of feet.

Piezos need really good preamps matched to them to even start sounding like real pianos as far as I'm concerned.

Bruce

Edited December 22, 2015 by Marvel

[russ69]

If you are going to compare Khorns to Magnepan make sure you use the 20.7s. It wouldn't be fair to compare them to the 3.7s, it's half the cost of a Khorn.

It's not really going to be a fair comparison because they are two completely different presentations. Both have their merits.

Edited December 22, 2015 by russ69

[tom b. 57]

I have owned MG1.4s for about three years now and they are my everyday main system speakers. In my room I get bass down to 40hz maybe lower. I love these things.

I also love my Cornwall's, KG4's and newly acquired RF7's.

Tom