Sound quality with monitors

A headphone sounding better than a studio monitor?
All headphones I ever tested did not sound good for piano (digital piano or piano softwares), despite some was from good brands.

Suggestions:

-Test the studio monitors with high quality piano recordings. like from pianoteq audio demos n their website.
-Test again, now with real piano high quality recordings.
-Check the setup on pianoteq adjustments. Try different piano models.
-Read the entire instrunctions manual of your studio monitor.

How is your system connected?
Is the monitors connected direct in the PC output or it's connected in other way, or in the output of your digital piano?

Try to run midi files for piano. This way you can repeat the midi while try to make adjusts in the velocity curve on pianoteq.

Like I said many times here, one key element for me is proximity. Proximity is essential to minimize delay so the player feels connected to the sound...even feel the bass vibration in the keyboard (in my setup I do!). In contrast to hifi speakers,  "near-field monitors" are designed to be listened to at close range. That, plus the fact that they can be quite small (and still have a decent bass extension) allows for easier placement in the right spot. Active monitors (with built-in amplification) can provide a better match between amp and speakers, as well as providing a cleaner set up (for example in a living room environment).

I'm using Genelec monitors which sound quiet well with my Piano software (PianoTeq, Garritan etc.)
but the sound was improved a lot when i connected a Genelec Subwoofer.

I settled for headphones (AKG K702) for private playing long ago, being always dissatisfied with the loss of detail and immediacy from a number of different speakers and amplifiers (never tried powered near-field monitors though).

The problem, in my opinion, is the room reverberation, however large or small, that adds too much coloration to the already somewhat colored and boxy speakers sound with its limited dispersion pattern. This hides the fine details in Pianoteq (or Organteq) by putting you in another environment. Headphones let you hear what the simulation offers at its best even though it is imprisoned inside your skull….

As an example, I made a small comparison rendering a two minute Brahms intermezzo by switching every 15 seconds between the eight main grand pianos, in the Pianoteq menu order, from NY Steinway D to Bluethner. Contrary to version 7.0.3 version 7.0.4 has a short silence between the presets making the change easy to hear.

I’m using the empty hall reverb layer preset I posted about a while ago.

First a dry sound, with all pianos solo, letting you hear (with headphones) their characteristic colour:

https://forum.modartt.com/uploads.php?f...%20dry.mp3

Then from about the middle of an empty concert hall. Notice how they all sound much more similar, except the very colorful C. Bechstein that stands out.

https://forum.modartt.com/uploads.php?f...20hall.mp3

The same thing in reverse order since the Bluethner is not favored by being at the end of the piece in the previous example.

https://forum.modartt.com/uploads.php?f...0order.mp3

This shows that in this somewhat extreme situation, the room is what you hear, not the individual instrument so much. I think that's what happens when playing through speakers (opinions may vary of course, no problem!) 

After listening for a while to these eight instruments with a variety of classical MIDI files, I must say I understand why the Steinway D is the preferred instrument for large concert halls. There is something to its regularity of tone that makes it better in this situation, and in Pianoteq the NY Steinway D is indeed my favorite!