You don't say what his 'limited budget' is.
The 1.7 is one heck of a speaker. Also given is that there are some highly recommendeded requiements for it such as:
1. it needs a fairly large room so that it can breathe
2. it needs good clean power and current to make it breathe well.
If your friend watches the Audiogon ads, I'd recommend a Spectron Musician III Mk2 (Class D) amp. They usually sell for less than $3,000.00 used.
Chuck