"...If the friend has a huge room I really can't think of anything reasonable that can be done in this price range. In a smallish to midsized room, my recommendations more or less stay the same. I would simply buy different speakers within the product ranges I recommended. As to how any speakers are going to sound in a *specific* room, based on my experiences with home auditions, I think it is a bit reckless to make many pronouncements other than the most obvious related to size. The friend needs to hear the speakers at home in the room in question before buying. That is one of the reasons I would bite the bullet and buy the speakers new." (Newmanoc)
Negative Newmanoc! and at $3k used, there's a plethora of options he can do, and some of them, while great chioces with some rooms/setups, would be aweful choices in others!
Ceiling heights, seating distances, dimmensions (long wall setup vs shortwall, close seating or back further seating arrangements), overall acoutical properties, open room vs, closed in (small and medium room is relative to whether the rooms are open to other room, like living room setups.
To think that at this budget, none of this makes sence is really ignorence, and lack of experience(no offense, but true).
Regardless of budget, the room setup, acoustics, room dimmensions, etc, are more than 60% of the sonic equation, and should ALWAYS be considered! That said, in some situations, sealed box speakers are often better choices in some setups, while ported speakers do better in other applications. Also horns, Dappolito, or controlled focus designs work better in some rooms over conventional single driver/tweeter speakers. YES!...it all maters! Infact, in most applications the type of gear choices and spekaer designs for your needs is of much much greater importance than the actual brands or models you end up with, yes!
Still, quality selections are what you're after at a given application and price point, indeed.
Still, I'd like to know more about a room as a custom guy, than just what's best at a given budget. That doesn't work! Actually, let me rephrase that...it is an easy recipie for mediocre to poor results for the inexperienced weekend warrior/audio-enthusiest!