Trust Your Ears: Aural Tuning Wins

Even with precise machines, aural tuning remains unbeatable when evaluating piano tone. Focus on listening tests and real-world harmony rather than purely automated metrics. Check intervals like fifths and fourths by ear, since machines can produce smooth curves that sound wrong in context. Listen across registers, measure beat rates between string pairs, and verify that the overall stretch serves the keyboard, not just the tuning graph. Treat tuning as a relational task: small adjustments in one note affect neighbors. Document what you change and recheck in different tempos and dynamics for a stable, musical result.