High quality sound at home

[MrVegas]

I had a Yamaha Clavinova CVP-209 for about 10 years and I gotta say that thing had beautiful tone. Somehow the amps and speakers in the spinet-style cabinet just sounded so good, mainly for acoustic piano sounds (but electric pianos, strings sounded lush as well).

 

Currently I'm playing my Kronos and MOXF8 through some KSC speakers (and sub) that are about 16 feet from the keyboards in a rec room setting. Sometimes we have people over and I play for groups of 20-30 people in my rec room. The KSC's are nice, and sound great especially when playing synths and drum sounds, but when I'm just playing by myself or with my wife the sound is no where close to what I had with the Clavinova. Pianos just lack the richness and lushness of the Yamaha stand alone piano/keyboard.

 

Has anyone ever tried to re-create the sound stage I'm talking about? I think there must be something about how the speakers are mounted in a wooden enclosure and how they fire in multiple directions. I would not mind spending some dough on more of a near-field setup for the times that we don't have gatherings to have better tonal quality. Thoughts?

 

[zxcvbnm098]

Which QSC's are you using?

[MrVegas]

LOL, I said KSC, duh. The QSC's are the K12.2. Also have the subwoofer. Got them about 5 years ago.

[3rdAct]

I don't know what preset you're using on the K12.2, but STUDIO MON should work nicely for this application.

[MrVegas]

I did not realize that the qsc speakers has presets

 

[Nathanael_I]

The Clavinova sounded better up close because the engineers could design to a known environment. The sound only needs to go to the player, and getting it to sound like "player position" is defined. Having the audio from some mic'd position go out the jacks to an unknown environment means that whether it works or not is entirely unpredictable. The reverb may or may not work for the size room, it may be too bright or too dull... and so on. Amplifying piano samples is a big topic. Reverb and EQ are the two main things you can control at no cost by editing your presets. You may find it useful to make ones that are specific to your room and setup.

 

Sadly, getting any better than the speakers you have in "PA-speaker-land" will be big $$ for increasingly small gains. Studio monitors might help, but good ones are not cheap. There are no excellent full-range, affordable speakers that go down to 28Hz (the bottom of the piano keyboard). But something like the Mackie 828's (or whatever they call them these days) would be very good indeed. I used them for 15 years and they are quite hard to beat. There are similar options from other vendors.

[Nathanael_I]

If you haven't EQ'd the Kronos, much is possible. The default presets are very bright and hyped. Taking all that off gives (to my ears) a much more natural sound. Reverb to taste and then making sure that the volume is not louder than a real acoustic piano, and decent results should be available. But yes, it is hard to amplify pianos...

[Docbop]

I use studio monitors at home for small size and full range they offer. I heard a Montage at GC with Yamaha studio 8" monitors on it and was so full I did the same thing. I got a pair of studio monitor stands so a lot of flexibility in where I place them. Definitely fuller sound than powered PA speakers.

[uhoh7]

I run two large floor standing speakers, Pioneer SP-FS52s, two fair sized shelf Bose speakers, a guitar style Leslie 105(no amp), and a big sub woofer from and old Denon AV amp which does stereo via 5 speaker surround. I gain stage into it from my mixer with a schitt magni. Everything I send into it sounds incredible.

[Reezekeys]

Has anyone ever tried to re-create the sound stage I'm talking about? I think there must be something about how the speakers are mounted in a wooden enclosure and how they fire in multiple directions. I would not mind spending some dough on more of a near-field setup for the times that we don't have gatherings to have better tonal quality. Thoughts?

Are you talking about your QSCs? First, they are plastic enclosures not wood. But more importantly, if I'm in my house (actually, anywhere) I would never want to hear myself coming out of speakers that are 16 feet away! Not only that but by being indoors in your rec room you are most likely getting reflections from the walls and ceiling that are coloring or smearing the sound. Not to mention possible standing waves in the low end (if you have parallel walls) that are cancelling some frequencies and reinforcing others. I'm guessing that this is what mostly accounts for your preference to hear the Clavinola from its own speakers â you are getting more of a percentage of direct sound with little reflections.

 

Your idea to use near-fields is good (as long as they're placed near you of course!). Actually, a smaller PPA setup placed closer would probably sound better than what you have now. If you don't need a ton of volume, you could even use any good full-range hi-fi speaker setup. We might have different needs though, I don't need subwoofing for any of the music I play (I use 2 QSC K8s on gigs, no sub). Your two KSC 12.2s and a sub are what some pro sound companies might use on a loud dance music or electronica event in a large venue - not someone's rec room!

 

The other option is acoustic treatment of the room â bass & mid traps. If you're in a room where you're 16 feet away from your speakers I can only guess you'll have a lot of wall area to cover so this would require a lot of bass trapping and possibly some diffusion â meaning, very expensive! The links on this page of Ethan Winer's web site has a lot of good info on that.