I like the idea of a separate section for recordings. I would love to listen to (and eventually share) our own recordings!
But I do see another potential benefit of having a recordings section. There are many piano excellent piano manufacturers, most of whom have a signature tone. Obviously the best thing you can do when buying a piano is try as many in person as possible to see what you like, but this isn't always feasible because:
- Most dealers only offer pianos from a small number of manufacturers
- Even if a dealer near you offers a manufacturer you're interested in, they may not have the size you want
- There is tremendous variability from one piano to another even within the same manufacturer
All this means buyers need to have a reasonable idea ahead of time what manufacturers they might be interested in, so they can seek out relevant dealers and try as many pianos as possible. But without some preconceived idea of what you're looking for, the search is quite daunting and would require a LOT of travel.
Despite the issues and imperfections with online recordings, they remain the best way to hear a wide range of piano "flavors" and get a sense for each manufacturer's "signature" sound. This isn't really possible to do with a single A-B comparison; you really need a wide range of recordings before it starts to become clear.
I would love a section of the forum where we can aggregate exemplar recordings for each manufacturer that really highlight the signature tone that piano maker is known for. Yes, there is variability between each instrument, and there's no guarantee that every piano from a given manufacturer will perfectly encapsulate the signature you hear from recordings. But it was definitely helpful for me in providing a starting point from which I could narrow things down further. I did, for example, find that I was able to get a reasonably refined idea in my head of how the Bosendorfer sound differs from the Steinway sound just by listening to recordings (which was then corroborated by my own in-person sampling), but it took a lot of time and videos for me to appreciate the difference.
Maybe within that section, we can have a thread for each manufacturer where users can share videos they've found helpful. It would be a great resource for buyers and could be a reason for people to visit the forum.