Three questions in the Piano Contrasts audience surveys produced perceptual results that indicated how the audiences generally perceived the tonal timbres of the Stuart and Steinway. Each of these questions used the verbal attributes from the above literature combined with the knowledge of the tests conducted in chapter 4.

It was expected that most people would hear more ‘brightness’ in the tone in the Stuart sound, especially in the higher notes, because of the wider spectrum and increased loudness at the onset sounding of the note, found as a characteristic in many of the Stuart sounds in chapter 4. An example of the ‘brightness’ in the Stuart sound is heard on the note C5v81STU MW mic 2, when compared to the C5v81STE MW mic2, see ‘C5 Directivity’, chapter 4. It was found that the higher level of loudness and the larger amplitudes of upper partial frequencies were the elements that contributed to the ‘brightness’ in the Stuart sound. It was also anticipated that the lower pitches of the Stuart sounds though could be interpreted as sounding ‘fuller’ than Steinway, for example the comparison between C2v20 STU MW mic6 and C2v20 STE MW mic6,³⁴² shows the Stuart sound has more prominent bass frequencies than Steinway, producing what is described as a ‘fuller’ tonal colour. Both these findings of Stuart piano tone quality, as with many in chapter 4, were found to be particular to the directivity that the sound travelled in from the pianos into the audience area, indicating that particular seated positions of the audience would also influence evaluations of tonal colour. The mixed sounds of the notes’ radiations across all the directions of the 180° sound field illustrated throughout chapter four, reveals though, that generally the Stuart sounds did sound brighter in the higher registers, and fuller in the lower registers than the Steinway’s mixed sounds.

³⁴²See sound No.3. in ‘Wider Harmonic Spectrum, chapter 4.