In both (Pianoteq and Ivory) I used the most standard option (the one that the plugin starts with) with only a change of turning of any reverb.
Probably the close position is the best one for such a test. When it comes to resonance sliders, it's always tricky. For example in Ivory you have a knob to turn, but it makes a very artificial effect. How about posting a recording with the standard settings and some increased resonance?
It all may seem stupid, but everything sounds great on prepared recordings, but when you start playing it, you find the hidden disadvantages and drawbacks. From my experience: Akoustik Piano sounds bad on samples and while playing, Pianoteq sounds better, but still far to ideal on samples, however occurs really responsive, Ivory sounds almost great on recordings but does not give the possibility to play with (just plays the samples), and now Vienna Imperial: sounds great on recordings, but how it feels under your own fingers? You may say that it's great, hoever I have heard opinions saying that there's nothing better than Akoustik Piano... Actually I believe VI's samples are ideal, but what I'm afraid of is the DSP.

I've just spent a week with the Vienna Imperial and I love it. However I have a slight concern. To my ears at least, some of the top notes (e.g. the C and Db three octaves above middle C), especially when played quietly, seem slightly out of tune. This is only audible when the sustain pedal is down and the resonance samples enabled. Although this adds to the organic quality of the piano (to refer to an earlier post) it does worry me, especially when this is to be used in recordings. Anyone else noticed this?

Yes I've noticed this too. I have the same concern.

The fact that the real piano is often out of tune does not justify that a virtual instrument is... One of the advantages of a digital piano is that it always stays tuned - here it seems to be slightely detuned from the very beginning, and to make matter worse, retuning is virtually impossible.

I quite agree. Retuning isn't virtually impossible: it's impossible. One fundamental difference between a piano and a digital piano is that the piano tuner can't be called in to fix any out-of-tune notes in the latter. There is the additional issue that the out-of-tune samples are always exactly the same, making the fault doubly irritating. It would seem that the piano tuner hadn't been called in often enough when the initial recordings were made. Vienna Imperial is expensive, undoubtedly reflecting the undeniably impressive technical achievement, but this issue really needs sorting out, perhaps by another recording session to recapture the duff samples. In a concert setting the current Vienna Imperial would be barely acceptable; for an instrument designed for recording it is simply unacceptable.

Could anyone place a sample of music played on the "Dry Rock Piano" preset? Thanks in advance!

Hello, I just found this thread. Some days ago I started a similar thread. I also discovered that some of the top notes are slightly out of tune... Of course that's not perfect but one can live with it. A much more bothering problem what I've written already is that there's an oscillating high frequency tone at G4... very high and louder at heavier velocities (espeacially when using the sustain pedal!!!). Nobody noticed that? It's rather evident and annoying but the responsibles at VSL ignore my request... :-( I would wish they could process this note and launch an update of the Imperial...

whereas it is possible to keep the content for close/player/distant seperate it is not possible to remove certain elements for a position from the monolithic file due to its highly optimized structure.

christian