Rasch, I take exception. I have an Irmler and its tonal palette is deep and rich. There is nothing cheap about that piano except for its price. It is hand made, it is made of hard wood, it has a good scale, and it does everything a piano is supposed to do. It roars, it whispers, it sings and it dances.
In fact, much better than the Steinways the same size I have played, which have a remarkably weak passaggio from tenor to bass, a relatively muddy bass (Steinway in this regard compares very poorly with better pianos, like Mason and Bechstein) and a rather uninteresting palette in the treble, where mostly there is but a few colors available. Nothing to compare to a Bluthner, nor to my well-preped Irmler.
I have no problem with you and I disagreeing, but the fact that you think the best pianos are not German and that you have such a contrary opinion about AFs leads me to believe I have no interest in looking for common ground. I simply think you are wrong.

(of course, there is no wrong in taste, so you really aren't, I just
think you are)
CJ, thanks for the explanation about the scale and materials in the German AF. That is precisely my understanding as well.