Romy the Cat wrote:

I had yesterday our technician to make a first pass over the Mason and now it is eventually is in tune. It is become playable I have discovered a interring challenge. As I said before the acoustic setting for the piano is perfect in out listening room, even my piano tuner was super pleased and said that she did not fight with acoustic at all. However, now the challenge is to make the piano to sound balanced in the room and this is not the matter of acoustics as I know it. The total tone and character of sound is very nice but the balance across octave as it hear in the room is kind of challenging. As the piano lead closed, well the only front is open, then sound is properly balanced but the last two bass octave are very underdeveloped. The last few keys, that has single string, sound juts laughable. As the lead up then the bass gets the full size and character but then the piano drives a horrendously exaggerated midrange to the room. As I make the lid to be open less and less then the MF become more balance but I am loosing the bass size. So, I wonder if it is practicable to put a thick layer of acoustic foam UNDER the piano lid in order if the lead open then the first reflection from the piano deck to the room would be less prominent at midrange. As far as I understand the subject that would be a reasonable solution but I wonder how pianists deal with it. The Cat

rowuk wrote:

The really serious piano players I know either ignore it or buy a different piano. I have NEVER worked with a pianist that tried to make a piano something it currently wasn't. I think that when you are obcessed with your playing there are no synapses in your brain available for audio analysis.  http://www.npr.org/blogs/krulwich/2014/09/04/345576795/glenn-gould-in-rapture?utm_medium=RSS&utm_campaign=classical  I think Romy, that you once accused musicians of hearing differently because they hear what they would do, not what is really happening. Applies here too!

Romy the Cat wrote:

An audio guy contacted me today with and an interesting note: “can't put a piano in the same room as a hifi”. When I asked why he wrote: “scott's steinway sounding board would 'ring' like crazy. it was my theory about why his tannoys sounded even muddier than they should. To prove it, we played a very short loud 'impulse' in the room, then turn it off and listen. You could hear the piano vibrate like crazy, for a relatively long time.  Definitely not good. I think there is a big difference between even a cello or a guitar doing some vibrating in the room (almost like your 10" tannoy effect, perhaps) and a huge piano board (mud).” A valid concern. I did express unhappiness 7 years back about bass overtones when I had my guitar sitting in wrong place. http://www.GoodSoundClub.com/TreeItem.aspx?PostID=3840 I had a baby grand in my listening room for 3 years and did not detect problems. Perhaps I am not too observant but I do not think that I noted that my sound went does with arrival of piano. Guitar is very “bad” because it is very narrow bandwidth Helmholtz resonator. A  Piano is another hand is wide bandwidth resistor  and it would be less likely that it will be position at the location when acoustic pressure from Hi- Fi would ignite it. Of cause it is only a theory. Did anybody has any practical problem to integrate piano with audio?

rowuk wrote:

The only issues that I have ever had were putting the piano in a place where the large smooth surfaces did not cause assymmetric reflections that messed with the stereo presentation.  The damper pedal on a piano is "on" when not depressed. The pianos ability to ring is severely coprimised. A guitar, cello, contrabass has no installed damper and rings per design. The damper is the players arm or fingers.  I am sure that Steverinos preference to solo piano has nothing to do with ringing. Any loud playing as a solo instrument would also excite "more" wide band noise if the piano were truly so inferior. The thought did make me smile however. Generally, the real problem with piano is that it is well tempered. This sounds fine alone, but when playing with other "just" tuned instruments, we get sum and difference interference tones. They cause broad band beats that are disturbing to some and part of the art form to others. I feel fortunate that the musicians and composers intentions transcend all of this audiophoolery for my listening. That is probably because my instrument, the trumpet has the most intonation problems of any orchesteal instrument. High Q and very short air column. Not much room for play - especially with a piano.  I would imagine that the piano would be beneficial for a large scale audio system. The soundingboard absorbs resonance and if anything at all, would release a VERY small portion delayed in time. Coupling to the floor is something that the heavy brass wheels do well. For added transmission the brake mechanically couples even more

Romy the Cat wrote:

Rowuk, I very much on the same page with you. I do not buy the idea that piano could "ruin" sound of those Tanoys like it was in the case of my guy above or that it makes too much resonance in case of orchestral /chamber music, like in case of Steverinos. There are a lot of modulations of piano plays let say a quintet but they are acoustical modulation but the "piano board got excited by viola tone". I do not see a problem without piano in listening room. I however do not deny that in some cases a presence of a large hollow piece of furniture would have some impacts. To evaluate a magnitude of this impact is a totally different matter. in my case it is absolutely negligible and even undetectable. In case of others it might be detectable. However, I absolutely do not buy the notion that it might "make a loudspeaker to sound bad". If playback does sound bad then fix the actual problem, not the 0.00000001% of problem that might or not might come from piano. Rgs, Romy

Romy the Cat wrote:

I think the piano project turn out to be a huge success. My baby not only starts to play but start to compose. If somebody do not hear a clear harmony in this then you have no ears.