Speaker Recommendation Needed

look into Wharfedale Diamond 9.6's they are a large fullrange speaker with a warm natural sound and also deliver clean strong bass response down to around 30hz. I have a large room also (28' by 22' by 8') these fill my room wonderfully. They also have a curved cabinet design that is solid and sleek, as well as the neat kevlar drivers. they can be had on Audiogon or ebay for around $600-650 or $1000 new. Their smaller siblings (the 9.1s) were given rave reviews on stereophile by Robert Reina. here is a small snippit

The Diamond 9.1 had two attributes that floored me:
1) Extraordinary resolution of detail in the midrange, with no trace of coloration. Low-level dynamic articulations in this region were subtle and linear, and the speaker's ability to render soundstage cues, ambience, and hall sound were what I would expect from a speaker costing $2000/pair or more.
2) A refined, delicate, and detailed presentation of high-frequency articulation, with no trace of either hardness or softness and with a perfect replication of transients.

PSB Stratus line...Gold (maybe even "i" model), Silver, or Bronze all within budget. Great value for the money!

You're in Kentucky so Tyler Acoustics would be worth a real look. Some Freedom series would be in your friends budget and maybe some Reference minis or monitors with a bit of stretching. The point being that a good quality receiver could drive these speakers effectively and they would do classical very well.
Gary

That's a big room to fill. I used to own Spica Angelus and the Green Mountain Audio Europas are better in every way, including imaging. However they would struggle to fill such a large room without a subwoofer.

I think you may struggle to fill a room that size with music AND have the subtlety and imaging of the Spicas on the stated budget. The Europas might do it if you budget for a good sub in the future (I use a Rel strata).

You could fill that room with music with B&W DM603s, but you'll lose some of the refinement of the spicas. The B&ws are a lot of fun, though.

Someone listed Wharfedale Evolution 30s for $650 today. They popped right into mind when you mentioned room size and budget. They are noted for big sound with solid bass and should image well also. And they are quite attractive in my opinion. These were the second from the highest in Wharfedales top series a couple years ago, not sure if thats still the case. Search audioadviser.com for picks and details, they offer quite a few Wharfedales.