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What are the world's best speakers to bring the philharmonic into your living room?

AndyU said:
Put the question a slightly different way ... what speakers could convincingly reproduce the sound of a grand piano in your living room? Certainly not ESL57s (which I’ve had, and enjoyed), or any of the BBC LS3/5A types. The larger active ATCs get closer than most.
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I think a piano is harder to reproduce than a big orchestra in full flight, and have yet to hear a loudspeaker "do" piano really convincingly. It doesn't help that (to my ears, at least) a lot of classical solo piano recordings are not very well made, with microphones far too close to the piano's insides. I don't want to hear what the pianist hears*

I share the OP's aim of reproducing the experience of large-scale orchestral music in a good concert hall. What I have found necessary, far above any other consideration, is to make the room disappear. Only omnidirectional speakers have achieved this in any of the (fairly modestly sized) listening rooms I've ever had.



*I've got a pianola for that :)
 
I'd say some big ATC's, the choice of model depending on room size. Theirs are the speakers installed in Sydney Opera House and the Royal Festival Hall. They are staggeringly neutral, have massive bandwidth and the ability to reproduce huge dynamic swings. Crucially they are tremendously open and for my money offer the most lifelike sound reproduction of any speakers I have ever heard. I have a friend who is a concert pianist and so knows exactly what a Steinway concert grand sounds like having played hundreds of them over the years. On a recent visit and after seeking recommendations from fellow naim forum members for superb piano recordings, we had a listening session on my ATC SCM40's. She was utterly blown away!

Birdseed
 
Birdseed007 said:
I'd say some big ATC's, the choice of model depending on room size. Theirs are the speakers installed in Sydney Opera House and the Royal Festival Hall. They are staggeringly neutral, have massive bandwidth and the ability to reproduce huge dynamic swings. Crucially they are tremendously open and for my money offer the most lifelike sound reproduction of any speakers I have ever heard. I have a friend who is a concert pianist and so knows exactly what a Steinway concert grand sounds like having played hundreds of them over the years. On a recent visit and after seeking recommendations from fellow naim forum members for superb piano recordings, we had a listening session on my ATC SCM40's. She was utterly blown away!

Birdseed
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I’m inclined to agree. It’s maybe no coincidence that Billy Woodman, the boss of ATC, was a professional piano player for some years, and one of his motivations in developing the ATC midrange was the realistic reproduction of piano. He said in an interview, talking of when he started in the ‘80s:

“Think about hi-fi at the time; you had Quad, the LS3/5a, Spendors, and so, and they were all good acoustic quality loudspeakers with no dynamic range, so they wouldn’t even replay a piano played at pianissimo. And yet the Americans had loudspeakers that were born out of the theatre, that ended up in studios, and then ended up in hi-fi, that had huge dynamic range and not particularly good acoustic quality. I thought there’s got to be somewhere in the middle that you can reach, and the obvious thing to do is if you make the voice coil large enough you can make a direct radiating device handle enough power to give you enough maximum sound pressure level.”

https://zstereo.co.uk/2018/02/01/atc/

http://studio-hifi.com/images/ATC Founder Billy Woodman.pdf
 
I have recently installed this system in our main listening room. I believe it’s the only audio system in the world capable of faithfully reproducing a full orchestra.

I’ve only been demonstrating it for a month but of the 6 dealers who have visited, all have said it’s the best audio system they have ever heard. If anyone fancies a listen, please let me know.

https://steinwaylyngdorf.com/steinway-sons-ls-concert/

Steinway Lyngdorf LS Concert loudspeakers were designed to deliver the highest fidelity sound in any environment. Capable of faithfully reproducing the sound of the live performance in rooms for up to 500 listeners, they are a unique speaker system.

A free-standing dipole speaker, they introduce sound to the room from the front and rear, just like a musical instrument. This produces a far more open, natural sound than traditional forward radiating speakers. Music simply sounds as if the artists are in front of you rather than being reproduced by loudspeakers.
 
AndyU said:
Put the question a slightly different way ... what speakers could convincingly reproduce the sound of a grand piano in your living room? Certainly not ESL57s (which I’ve had, and enjoyed), or any of the BBC LS3/5A types. The larger active ATCs get closer than most.
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To be honest I wouldn't want a grand piano in my living room, it would be bloody painful. I don't get this mentality of wanting an orchestra in your room, sounds a bit daft to me.
 
A heard the ATC system at British Grove Studios and it was obviously colored or distorted.

Bear in mind British Grove is one of the finest recording studios in the world and I was listening to the 5.1 mix of Brothers in Arms on the system/room it was mixed on.

I commented on how bright it was and the engineer said it was about 4db up 3k.

He visited and heard the Steinway Lyngdorf system and was blown away. “that’s what it should sound like” was his comment.
 
I heard Magneplaner 20's at a HI-FI show in Windsor a couple of years ago.And they where incredible just vanished on a wide variety of Classical and the Trilogy amps and source didn't cost fortunes either.
Absolutely wiped the floor with the nearby Absolute Sounds room I might add.
Amazing speakers.
 
Robert Sinden said:
A heard the ATC system at British Grove Studios and it was obviously colored or distorted.

Bear in mind British Grove is one of the finest recording studios in the world and I was listening to the 5.1 mix of Brothers in Arms on the system/room it was mixed on.

I commented on how bright it was and the engineer said it was about 4db up 3k.

He visited and heard the Steinway Lyngdorf system and was blown away. “that’s what it should sound like” was his comment.
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It couldn’t possibly be that you sell the Steinways and you don’t sell the ATCs could it?
 
Miss Ariel said:
I heard Magneplaner 20's at a HI-FI show in Windsor a couple of years ago.And they where incredible just vanished on a wide variety of Classical and the Trilogy amps and source didn't cost fortunes either.
Absolutely wiped the floor with the nearby Absolute Sounds room I might add.
Amazing speakers.
Click to expand...
This is the route I will now likely take.Terribly impressed with the LRS speakers. Nearly got the .7s after a good offer but fell just short sadly. Love what I have now though so may be some time before I look to this.
 
Mine do a pretty good job of reproducing anything you care to listen to:D
Huge scale and impact with detail and delicacy.

IMG_2712.JPG
 
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