Speakers that do pianos really well


I recently had the good fortune to listen to a half a dozen pretty well-regarded speakers back-to-back. For these kind of sessions I like using piano recordings - either solo or jazz trio - as a measure because, to my ear at least, it seems that speakers that can reproduce piano really well seem to be pretty well sorted on everything else. The surprising thing was how many of these speakers did NOT do piano well. Of the group there were only two - Vandersteen and Verity - that I thought really captured the big chords, shadings, timbres, and reverberations cleanly and naturally. The rest - and I'm not going to call them out by name - offered a mixed bag of over-brightness, distortion, and general unnaturalness. I was very surprised by the results as I expected better from some of these speakers based on their reviews and reputations. So my question is, Does anyone else use the piano as a litmus test, and what speakers do people use that they think do pianos really well? Regards.
grimace
I listen to a lot of piano (jazz trios, classical, etc.)and I have a pair of Silverline Preludes (current version) that do piano amazingly well...with an older REL sub.
YES, I listen to a lot of classical music with piano and I also find piano to be an excellent test of a speaker's coherence, tonal balance, and midrange accuracy. I find many highly touted speakers tend to sound thin and tinny on piano. I'm curious which Verity model you liked. I have the SF Cremona M and it does piano really well--in fact, midrange reproduction in general is its strong suit.
Maggies seem to get piano right IMO (I own the humble MMGs). They present a very convincing scale and tone.
I was very surprised to find my tekton lore s speakers reproduce solo piano and jazz combos very well. I heard they were a live rock speaker, with a forward sound, but I find the balance, tone and timbers actually favor jazz trios and solo classical piano. I wouldn't have guessed this but it was a pleasant surprise. I grew up with a Steinway 7 grand in the living room, and these get pretty close.