Which era was when the piano was at its peak?

[cuberdrift]

I'm interested in the era of history when the piano was at its "peak" - for example, the electric guitar reached its peak during Hendrix's era, so that would be around the 70's. After that it was still popular, but slightly less and today it is almost a "vintage" instrument.

I get the impression that the piano was at its height during either the time of Herz and Moscheles, or Chopin and Liszt, but have a hard time figuring out which. I have a slight theory that the era just before Chopin's (when Herz, Czerny, Kalkbrenner, etc. were the stars) was actually THE peak given that Italian opera and Paganini stole the show a little bit, and Liszt kind of made the piano unapproachable given how insane he made the technical demands (making it inaccessible to the typical Biedermeier middle class virgin).

What do you think?