Based on what I have auditioned so far, the only thing that fit his budget and looks good is the Acapella Spharon
Barry,
I think you are headed down the right path with the Acapella's. I know several people with a lot of money and their outlook on 'things' are far different than ours. We buy gear first because it sounds good and focus less on the coolness factor. When you have that much money, 'things' are about statements of taste. In the case of stereo gear, it must be functional, sound good (if not great) and
must make a statement. That statement usually equates to lots of money and often times must hold some sort of artistic value.
The Acapella's fit right in both of those catagories. You might also consider the Avante Guarde horn loaded bass module as part of the speakers. The next step swould be amplification.
That said, I'd send him directly to Josh at Electron Luv (my personal hero)
http://www.electronluv.com/index.htmlJosh will hand make him a one of a kind set of amps, preamps plus an active crossover for those super cool horns. Nobody in the world will ever own anything similar to his gear. This will likely weigh in
hugely on his choice.
And if he really wants, Josh will even custom fabricate a pair of speakers for him. Again, all of which will be one of a kind and an absolute statement.
There will be a few things that your aquantence will need to take into consideration. If he goes with custom horns, he is going to need to increase the size of his room (in length). The wavefront launched by these bad boys needs some space to completely develop and intergrate. Think about adding another 20 to 30 foot or so. Plus with gear that big, things get cramped really quick. Joshs speakers are the size of a Volkswagon (literally).
Trust me on this one, your friend won't be interested in standard box speakers unless its maybe the Dynaudio Grand Master Reference (which would make a cool 5 channel HT rig for him (they do make the center channel BTW) but these likely won't be enough to impress.
The Legacy Audio Whispers might trip his trigger.
There are some very good choices on that Exotic Audio website. That is a very good starting point.
Again, these guys are usually looking to make a statement when they spend money. What we think is cool doesn't even show up on their radar screens. People with serious coinage wouldn't dream of buying the pieces we salivate over.
...and I apologize to anyone who may be offended by my use of the words 'they' or 'them'. It wasn't meant to stereotype or segregate. I just couldn't figure out a better way of describing an entirely different classification of wealth.
