wife bought some speakers and now I need to figure out what else to get

[ennui]

She came home with a pair of Vienna Acoustics Beethoven Concert Grands and a Maestro Grand center channel speaker as well. I don't know jack about audio and am humbly asking for opinions on what else I should get to pair with these speakers.

She bought these mainly to listen to classical music.

Our living room is definitely not ideal for this though, as it's open to the kitchen. I do have a back room for the in-laws that is rectangular and closed off from the rest of the house, but political considerations may prevent me from moving the setup there.

I only have some 20-year-old Pioneer equipment from my father-in-law. We hooked it up and it sounded terrible, probably at least partially due to the speaker wire.

 

[A Y]

Those are nice speakers! If you suspect it's your wires, then they're either broken or corroded. A quick check before you run off to the hardware store for more wire: are the ends shiny, and do you see any breaks or otherwise bad things on the wire?

I'd get cheap hardware store wire first, and see how the whole thing sounds. After that you'll have a better idea of what to change or upgrade: incremental is the key.

--Andre

 

[uhurit]

Get a nice integrated amp on Audiogon, and get rid of that center channel
Your current one in a POS. Something like a moderately priced Arcam/Musical Fidelity should work without breaking the bank.
Also, get some decent inexpensive speaker cables

 

[darnelled]

better place to research is www.avsforum.com

 

[ennui]

Thanks for the replies. Yeah, I was thinking I'd just swap out the speaker cables first.

The Beethoven Grands are good speakers but the Maestro Grand is garbage?

 

[uhurit]

The center channel is pretty much useless for the purist 2-channel listening, unless you plan to use an AV receiver with say, your TV set. The speakers are great, but you'll never hear what they are capable of unless you upgrade your amp and speaker cables

 

[Artisan Fan]

Nice speakers, a friend has a pair.

I would look at tube gear. They really like tube gear. PrimaLuna is a good brand.