Based on the reviews on this site, I just auditioned the Grand Pianos, hoping to really love them. Overall, I must admit to being quite disappointed.
The speaker is beautiful -- great wood, terrific leather, nice design. It also has a very precise, mid range -- it sounded terrific with some of my classical music, particularly Mozart.

Unfortunately, the Grand Piano's (and the other Sonus Faber's) I auditioned at the same time, had almost no Bass. When playing rock n roll, the spearers sounded terrible -- very constrained and unnatural. It sounded very much like a bookshelf speaker. I heard a $1500 pair of Lynns and a $2000 pair of Tanoy's at the same time and they both sounded a lot better.

At this price level, I cannot help but give it a low rating.

Quick summary for those impatient to know:Excellent speaker. Nothing’s perfect, but this has to rate higher than 4.5, so after rounding it gets a 5. Why? Beautiful on voices, fantastic midrange, reasonable bass, stunning finish (I defy anyone to come up with a speaker with more style and quality in construction anywhere near the price!) great value.
More detail:
It all started when my wife decided that having a big black TV in the corner was not nice. So off we went to see some TVs which would suit the décor a little better. And the nice TVs were in the local hi-fi shop, and we listened to some good gear, and realised that the reason we hadn’t been listening to music much was that it didn’t sound very good. So we needed some new hi-fi gear.
Where we were coming from: Ancient and much loved Quad 33/303/FM3, B&W DM5s (large-ish bookshelves on stands, circa 1975, rewired to great effect recently) plus a Sony CDP102, the second CD player ever made by Sony. (I had in a previous marriage KEF 104.2s, which sadly were sold in the breakup. Hell I miss those speakers!)
So to fit the décor my wife decided that those tiny white Bose cubes would be wonderful. But they didn’t sound very good (that’s being generous to them) and once the decision had been made that something large and more dominant would look OK it opened up a whole world of choices. (And we ended up with large piano black works of Italian art – as far away from little white cubes as one could reasonably get! The reasoning being that if we couldn’t disappear the speakers we might as well make a statement with them.)
Auditioned: Dynaudio Audience 50s (great midrange, excellent imaging, not much bass, cheap looks (vinyl not wood) so they were vetoed on that point alone!), Dynaudio Contour 1.3s (better than the Audience but too accurate (if that’s possible) so they weren’t as musical and as easy to listen to as I wanted) Vienna Mozarts (nice but boring, I thought – nothing to put the finger on, and they did immediately get me listening to the music rather than the hi-fi, which the Dynaudios didn’t) A few Paradigms (universally sounded strangled, but maybe they were too new), some Monitor Audios (the good bookshelves and the floorstanders – and I can’t remember what they sounded like, so that’s probably a fair comment on them). And quite a few other speakers which didn’t get up.
I auditioned the baby Concertinos in piano black – and they won me. Too light in the bass and lower midrange, but stunning finish – and they played music! So I ordered and took delivery of the Concerto Grand Pianos last week without hearing them, and am very happy.
I also ordered a Rega Planet and a Musical Fidelity XA-1, with good interconnects and cables.
Out of the box the Grand Pianos had NO BASS at all. After only a few hours, however, they are very good, and getting better rapidly. I couldn’t believe the change.
Best on: female voices (Rebecca Pidgeon) Dave’s True Story – Sex Without Bodies (get that disk!) Tom Waits (Mule Variations) (I can’t classify that disk – what is it?) – anything with voices. Awesome on Leonard Cohen - I’m Your Man. Violins are never harsh, but they are accurate – more accurate than I’ve heard (speaking as an ex-violinist). I’ve heard too many harsh violins from so-called “accurate” speakers for one lifetime. It’s not a harsh instrument, just hard to reproduce!
They’re still not as good on rock (a reference for me is Dire Straits - Brothers in Arms) as the KEFs were – the midrange is too forward, and I’ll be playing with interconnects, cables, amplifiers, CD players etc to see what the answer is. Maybe it’s just to give them more time.
If I get enough new info to help I’ll post an update.
Oh yes - they're a lot cheaper in Australia than in the USA - and Stereophile rate them highly at the price you have to pay!

Music. They make music out of sound. They get better with age. They are beautiful.

For anywhere near the money, none.

This is my third review on these. I'm not trying to skew the ratings here. I'm just reporting back after time has passed. The first review was just after I bought them, the second a month later.
I have listed to MUSIC with these speakers for 18 months, and they continue to get better.
They make music.
And they do have bass, beautiful bass, regardless of what other people say. It sometimes dramatically stuns me.
They don't need huge power to drive them. Maybe I'm really strange, but I use a single ended valve (tube) amp - 300Bs which produce a massive 5 watts per channel. No, I can't shake the window, but I can listen to them loud enough in a medium sized room.
I believe they do need a quality amp, however, and good cables, and good source components - but we are trying to get to nirvana, guys.
Neil

Accurate sound,,nice finish and build quality

none

I upgraded my speakers to this pair of SF Grand Piano after having sold a pair of Concerto Homes, which I used for 5-6 months. The Grand Piano Home costs almost twice the price of Concerto Home so I settled for the slightly used old edition Grand Piano at a very attractive price. Driven by a custom-built 50 wpc (KT88) tubed amp with Audio Research SP9
Mk II preamp, GP's live up to my expectations as firmed up by the early positive reviews that GP's perform better with tubes specially those pumping out a minimum of 50 wpc power.
GP's accurate reproduction of sound continues the Sonus Faber tradition of combining good looks with superior mid- range and treble and defined and controlled bass. Clearly, both of which are superior transducers in thier own leagues.
While some people may find other speaker brands within the price range more attractive because of more bass slam, more revealing high, better sound staging and imaging, I consider the Grand Piano worthy of its name relegating the others in the price range to that of the bantam piano, in the final analysis.
More power to you Sonus Faber!

Similar Products Used:

PSB, Polk Audio, B&W, Monitor Audio, SF Concerto Home

midrange, female vocals, staging, clarity, transparent

needs high end amplification to start rockin'

at first, i connected those speakers to my integrated AV yamaha amp. DSP-A1 and enjoyed it while it lasted. the speaker gave beautiful clarity and staging but had a problem with the law end of the scale. i used it both with action movies and music and was happy to "discover" it anew every time i turned the amp' on. they excelled in classical music as well as soft rock, jazz and especially female voices. but still, something was missing in the party and i realized that the speakers needed a bigger muscle behind them. i bought a roksan-caspien set consisting of dsp-pre unit and a 5 ch power amplifier with a caspien cd. for watching movies i use a pioneer 515 DVD that does the job fairly okay. i use a monster M-2.4 bi-wire cable that is absolutely brilliant and a set of monster cable inter connectors. when i hooked it to the new set the i stood with amazement and looked at the speakers as if these are new speakers. it was a sound orgasm !!! celine dion's CD's sounded even better then the living celine herself. the staging was absolutely magnificent. about the bass - suddenly, there was no shortage of bass. on the contrary. it was controlled and low.
the movies part - since i got the new amp i am playing all my movies again astonished and thrilled. the Diva chapter in "the fifth element" was something out of this world and i couldnt stop the goose bumps..... the speakers gave the whole range of the mosic without missing a single detail of the action that was still going on in the background. the same goes for the helicopter scene in "the matrix".
to conclude - brilliant speakers. it takes almost twice the price to get a better speaker and still, no one can garantee you that you'll get a better result.
highly recommended. with all my heart.
have fun and enjoy.
cheers

Similar Products Used:

b&w matrix 804; AE 520; mission 753; castle; cura ca-21; B&W nautilus 805,804,803.

I have just tested the Sonus Faber Signums, Wilson Benesh Orator, and the Sonus Faber Concerto grand Piano.
Over a 2 hour listening seesion, it became obvious that the Grand Piano beats the sound of the the other two hands down.

Have tried the Signums against the small Concertos (not grand piano) and concluded that the vocals projected by the Signums are sweeter than the Concertos.

However, IMHO, the sound from Grand Piano is more tonally balanced than the Signums. One thing for sure is that I find myself going back to the Grand Piano (from the A-B [C?] sessions with the other 2) and enjoying so much more from the music. It seems to draw you deeply into intricate weave of the music.

The Wilson Benesch Orator has got more weight but it sacrifices on the clarity and the sweetness compared to the Grand Pianos.

Build wise, the Grand Piano is immaculate (provided you like the silky and gorgeous piano black lacquer finish)

Base on the price (£1800 for the Grand Pianos), I would give it 5 stars!

They sound very natural, with a natural sonorous approach to music. Vocals seem totally effortless and involving, like magic. Put your favourite album (vocal, strings, piano) on and bingo! you will immediately fell the difference.
Bass is not my main concern so they doing just fine. They don't offer glassy details as the treble rolls off smoothly.

In all if it's music you're interested in, go and audition them.

I listened to the Grand Piano briefly at a local dealer--so briefly because I couldn't stand the sound. I don't generally demand much bass, but even by my standards these speakers sound extremely thin. No midrange, no bass. The imaging was about average, and I never heard anything close to a realistic, deep sound stage. I originally planned to listened to the Concerto, but gave up the idea. Very disappointed.
I listned to them with Classe amps and a LINN CD player.

I would agree with the positive reviews listed here. This speaker does a lot of things right, with the result being a very natural sound.
I think the biggest limitation is in the lower octaves. This speaker does produce a good amount of bass that is very tight and tuneful, it just doesn't go to the depths I would hope for in a $3,500 speaker(plus $500 extra for base). The prior two reviews downgrade this speaker for a severe lack of bass, and I just can't agree with that. I have to believe there was a setup problem or, more likely, that the speakers were not broken in.

Overall I really liked these speakers. They were transparent, imaged well, were very accurate, and presented a nice soundstage. I have to say though, that JosephAudio RM22si did many of these same things as well or better than the Grand Pianos. These speakers get out of the way TOTALLY (they really disappear to the point that you forget you're listening to audio equipment at all) and leave nothing but the music in a deep, natural, layered soundstage, and they're $1,200 cheaper than the Grand Pianos(they do not, however, match the exceptional build quality of the GPs). In fact, for $3500 you could step up to the RM25si which does many of the same things as the RM22si but goes significantly deeper in the bass region. It's not hard to see why this little company is consistently voted in the top 5 or 10 at the Stereophile shows. There aren't many retailers that carry Josephs so they may be tough to find in your area, but it's worth the trip.

I don't mean to sound like an ad, but frequently when I read reviews on these pages it is very interesting to learn what people really love in addition to how they feel about the product they are reviewing. It helps give perspective and provides a specific product for comparison. In short, had I not heard the speakers from Joseph the Grand Pianos would be at the top of my list, and they are definately worth a serious audition.

I've read a couple of the recent reviews and had to provide an update.I quote from my review below:
"Out of the box the Grand Pianos had NO BASS at all. After only a few hours, however, they are very good, and getting better rapidly. I couldn’t believe the change."
After another month they are superb. I now marvel at their bass. Seriously.
So how does that gel with the other reviewers' comments? Simple. The speakers they were listening to were new speakers, I would guess.
So if you listen to them at the dealer's expect them to sound thin, honky and have no bass. If you can listen to them in someone's home after at least a month of solid burning in (mine weren't turned off!) you'll probably buy them. That's what the only potential purchaser to hear mine has done, anyway!
I never believed how much any component could change before this.
And if you can find some second hand ones grab them! You won't have to burn them in.
Still a 5.