Best speakers for around 1000


A friend of mine lost everything in tropical storm Allison. He is just getting around to replacing his stereo and is looking for suggestions. I'm trying to talk him into buying something used to get more bang for his $$$, but he's not convinced he wants to go that route.

Don't know what his front end is (talked to his wife who didn't have a clue). These will be used to listen mainly to classical, some rock. They have a young daughter (7) so stability is somewhat of an issue, as is the WAF (nothing huge/clunky). Any suggestions in this range, both new and used? He was looking at some Infinity, and I obviously thought he could do much better.

Thanks in advance!

Jim
jwilt
The floorstanding Matrix 804 are nice to, but might be large/clunky depending on your definition.
I have ProAc and can only recommend them as the best I have heard. I am sure many will agree with me.
Best regards
Yanomami
Used Totem Sttafs. Small floorstander with very good WAF. Would need to get optional speakers grills from Totem to address young daughter concern. Can usually obtain used for around $800.00.
Thanks to all who responded. Has anyone heard the Genesis 750s? Yeah, I know the company went down in flames, but I'm seeing some good prices on new or near new stuff. I've got 1 750 as a center channel between my Gen Vs, but I can't tell what a stereo pair would sound like.

Thanks!

Jim
For $1k new, look at B&W and Monitor Audio. People also seem to be pleased with Triangle speakers, but I have not heard them.
Jwilt, Some good suggestions above, but I want to add used Hales Rev2 which you can find for a good price. These aren't too big, real wood and sound great. Discontinued unfortunately. Good luck......LR
I would buy a pair of dahlquist dq20 or alon 11.both sell used for less then $1000.
Spendor S3/5 $799 + stands. No deep bass, but what's there is magic. Think of them as Ls3/5as with greater transparancy and a cleaner mid-bass.
I have recently "downsized" my living room system into something that looks better than my old Vandersteen 2ce's. I was prepared to spend up to $3k on speakers and the best things I heard in this price range were Proac Response 1.5. I also liked the look of the Vienna Acoustics Bach and Mahler, but since they had to go close to the wall, the Vienna's were eliminated. I ended up with B&W DM602 s2 which cost all of $600, plus another $40. No the B&W's are not Proac's but they sound a lot better than you would think for $600. They don't have the bass of the Vandersteen's but they have a better midrange, image better and can play louder. My wife, who is very picky, has not objected to their looks. The B&W's are also easy to drive.
Thanks to all for your replies. While I was compiling a list, the schmuck ran out and bought some Infinities. Sigh...