As a classic lover too, I want to contribute some suggestion to Cindy. From now on, I assume your room is not surprisingly large. Previous suggestion from Trejla and Garfish are excellent. Another alternative is go used pre/power amp and main/subwoofer. If you live in big city area, should be easy to access some nice used components in local audio shops. My own experience for musical equippments are, 1) CD player: (<$600) Not very critical in your price range. But if you can find used rega planar or CAL Lab, SONY ES, they are fine enough. Some suggested Ah!Tjoebe, good. You do need reasonable good interconnect from CD player to Pre-Amp. (suggest used Tara Lab, JPS... for smooth hi) DVD + MSB DAC is good option too. (only inexpensive one) If you want turntable, a used rega planar if fine. 2) Integrated to Pre/Power Amp (<$1500) Trelja already suggested good Integrated. You might find used Plinius integrated (but very hot). Or find old Conrad Johnson, Audio Research, McIntoshi separeates, even those are >10 years old (so price in). Prefer tube Pre and Solid State Amp (tube too expensive for your now). Those Jurassic things are built to last and "musical". To me, those are gears for classical music or jazz. If above power amp are still too expensive, go ROTEL or ADCOM for more power, but your pre-amp stays at higher end. 3) Speakers (total <$2000) Vabdersteen 2ce or 3A used Main + subwoofer Main: (used) used small ProAC (studio, tablet...) used Celestion (SL-series or 100/300) used Sonus fabers (used monitor) Own Celestion SL600, this one you need >120 W Amp for 82dB but "musical". Subwoofer: not so expensive used Velydine? (HGS-series) Hsu Research (need to match crossover freq) I like audioquest midnight serious or up, find some used one please. For classical music, silver cables tend to give good sound stage, but copper ones are smooth and forgiving for old records. All my suggestion should not give your a too bright system. For a beginner, you don't want to spend lots of time on room treatment. That is all hardware, get it done and spend your money on Horowitz's piano records (although old but romantic). For romance only, put Ella Fitzler or Diana Krall.... Or you like opera, play Puchini... All listed speakers have excellent vocal. Some people spend $$K on stereo but listen to garbage. Your budget may not get symphony right but definitely can get piano, violin sing, not mention vocal. Tuff for Beethoven, Wagner, and Mahler's large scale music but can play Mozart and Bach well. To play Beethoven and Mahler is my next dream for my stereo system too, any suggestion from anybody? Please don't give me B&W 801, Puppy,.... that kind of things, they are too expensive for me now. Give me something fit to a modest living room.
