Bosendorfer VS Fazioli VS Steinway Three Way Comparison

[Barrie Heaton]

for me its the Fazioli
What do you think?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mrB8IthgoRQ

Barrie

[chrisw]

In the first three pieces I thought the Fazioli had the nicest tone. The treble was mellow and clear and the bass sustained wonderfully. But this was the longest piano so you might expect the bass to sustain and the pianist may have lingered longer on the final chords. So I was getting worried that I had read Barrie's conclusion and was just agreeing.
Then he played Clair de Lune and I thought the Bosendorfer suited this piece best. In my opinion the Bosendorfer also coped best with Pirates of the Caribbean.
The sound of the Steinway was a little lifeless and it made me wonder if this could have been caused by the position of the microphone.
Another variable,impossible to ponder, is how the pianist played each piece and one thing was for certain that he did not play any piece the same way twice, who can ?
Finally I have made these comments without listening to the pianist's own summing up of the action and sounds in the last half of the video. I did listen to the first half twice with a couple of hours or so in between to see if I still felt the same way about the sounds and I did.

[Barrie Heaton]

The only way to get an accurate comparison of the playing would be to use a mechanical player. Since he was also reviewing the touch, he needed to play it. But you have the other significant variable the tuning, the Bluthner had more unisons out in the mid-range and did the tuner tune the aliquot sharp or in.

But touch is just as diverse as tone, and without playing it, you can not comper only go by the user doing the review.

but I did enjoy the vid

Barrie

[chrisw]

Barrie,
Longer pianos obviously have longer bass strings so they can achieve the lower notes with less mass per unit length of string and they give a better tone. At the other end of the piano where the strings can be very short, is anything done in larger grands to enable longer strings to be used or is this not possible in the high treble because a longer string would imply increased tension or reduction in the gauge of wire used ?

Since making my first reply on this topic I've listened to the commentary in the second half of the video. He makes a big deal regarding the smoothness of the actions on the two more modern pianos, the Fazioli and the Steinway. Are grand actions designs still being altered in any major respect to change the feel of the keyboard ?

[Barrie Heaton]

They are at the optimal length, most makes, make use of the none speaking length, except Bluthner who use aliquot as well.

The problem with the none speaking length on some makes you get bad bleed through. I have seen Model D's look like they have cut them selfs shaving with all the bits of red felt stuck in the capo none speaking length.

Barrie

[Barrie Heaton]

There is a lot of works being done on actions Steingraber are working with Renner on a new upright action now the deal with Yamaha is coming to an end.

Grands are always been tweaked

Barrie