B&W 804's Vs. Vienna Acoustic Beethoven

I have a Denon4800 which is great for home theater, great decoding of those DVD's, DTS ES especially, and I'm even delighted with it on the synthesized Wide Screen for the older laser discs. But it just doesn't compare, even on Direct, to the musicality of a 2 channel Audible Illusions preamp and a monoblock B&K M200. Your weak link is certainly the Denon and IMHO you won't hear quality of these speakers.

Vienna gets my vote hands down. But something else to consider is the Beethoveen's are a 4ohm load (I don't know how low they go either)--many receivers won't do well with that. I'd recommend looking for a new amp/pre before new speakers.

Here we go again, another BW "bashing". What a crock!
For the price, the N804 is a very fine speaker. Using a Denon HT receiver to power it is like putting an old VW bug engine in a new Corvette. you're only going to get out of it what you put in it. While the 803 has greater depth and better bass response, the law of diminishing returns kicks in here and I can't see spending and extra grand or more.
I think the Vienna'a are very comparable speakers, but it all comes down to individual taste and what you hear. I lean toward a love for accoustic piano, guitar, voice and the 804s fill the bill. They are quite dynamic with a good HD rock, such as Pink Floyd, or jazz, but hey, equal strokes...
Happy with my 804's.
Classe CA 300 amp
Classe cp 50 pre-amp
Classe cdp .45 cd player

I think a lot of people that are not happy with their N804s either try them in a big or medium sized room, or with a receiver. B&W says they are for small rooms. I bought mine since my listening room is 11x13. These ain't no HT speakers. The DM and CDM lines are for HT. I have a seperate system with a Marantz SR18 and CDM speakers . It's a killer. N804s like all the N series B&Ws are audiophile speakers. They sound like what you feed them. They are my third set of B&Ws and like the rest of them, they sounded like crap until you have 100 hours on them then they keep improving until about 600 hours. I began powering mine with a Classe' CAP 151 integrated. Use at least 100w/ch of good quality power . Presently mine are powered by a Cary V12i, Cary SLP2002, Cary 308T, Rega P25 .
The beauty of the B&W N series is that you can hear each change you make to your system.

Look! I have listened to B&W line extensively as the are the most widely avl. speakers to demo and these are good speakers in alot of bad demo systems in bad rooms with uncompatable equipment ect. I have heard them sound bad, I have heard them sound great!This has alot more to say about the shop than the line. I just visited Audio Exchange in south Bend Indiana while I was home for T day. They have a Mac C2200(nice!) hooked to ARC VT100,or Sunfire with a Marantz sacd or thier early 90's statement CD player (CD11 mk2)& B&W 804N. All I can say is this system had great synergy and I could easily listen for hours...
My advise is take the whole system into context and listen!
Sreno