Finding the strike line another method

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Ron writes:

<<  The strike line deviations from a straight 

line happen in the low treble section - the killer octave. 

Why? Just hanging the hammers where they work best is good 

enough for getting the job done, but I'd like to know more of 

the why here.  >>

Greetings, 
      I would opine that first we have to define "best".  
Case in point:  A certain hall here has a new Steinway D,(two years old, or 
so).  It has factory hammers with factory hardening in them.  It is regarded as 
the best piano in the school.  It sounds very powerful and brilliant to the 
pianists while they are playing it.  
       There is another D in this school.  It is 40 years old and has a set 
of Renner Blues in it.  It was always regarded as the lesser piano by the 
faculty,(though at a Liszt festival two years ago, 50% of the out of town artists 
chose it).  The pianists feel it is weaker and harder to play than the new 
one,(gram weights are within 2 grams of each other).  I have voiced this older 
piano for the maximum range of tone between ppp and FFF. 
   Last year, both pianos were on stage for concerto practise.  Out in the 
hall, the Renner equipped piano had a much fuller, more powerful sound,while the 
new piano sounded thin and stringy.  
    While the human ear is more sensitive to the upper frequencies, 
(basically the range of normal human speech,no surprise), acoustic power is more 
efficiently carried by lower frequencies.  This is why we can hear the bass drum in 
a marching band from a mile or more away, but as they pass by us on the 
street, it is the piccolo that drills its way through our head!  
    What I am wondering is if shortening the strike point is sacrificing some 
of the lower spectrum in the killer octave notes and lending emphasis to the 
higher partials, thus making it seem as though the piano has more power to the 
pianist, (or technician).  Has anybody compared a "bent-line" piano with a 
straight-line piano in the venue, from farther out from the stage?  
 
Regards,

Ed Foote RPT 
http://www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/index.html
www.uk-piano.org/edfoote/well_tempered_piano.html
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