Speaker Help Please: Floorstanders around $1Ok to fill very large space with no sub

@mofojo 
I would. IMHO they look much nicer. Don't get me wrong, I'm a fan of GE. my current living room is all SuperSats with their SuperSubs. (60s and Xs) My first "real" speakers were their Triton 7s. Then, Triton 2. I demo'd the Reference and was blown away at the time, but that's a really crowded market now with better looking for the same or cheaper. (The base is plastic. Nice looking plastic but still.) FWIW, I've also had 3 of their plate amps go bad. They've been great with repair and/or replacement so no issue with GE just a fact of using plate amps. You're right, probably not $10K, I guess I was thinking more if they could stretch. There were some 9H for sale on Audiogon for around $18K/pair, but were a cosmetic mess. they're incredible though and often overlooked. 

I am the 3rd person to mention the Pure Audio project open baffle speakers. with the budget your friend  has, i think these are worth considering, Duet 15 or the Trio 10 s. From what I have read, you can customize soe of the components... tweeters, crossover etc. The 2 models mentioned are very unique to each other sonic wise, Duet 15 being much fuller, laid back with a warmer overall presentation and Trio 10 with a much more detailed prsenetation, greater attack , faster etc Our friend from Audiophlliac Steve Guttenberg does a full review comparing the 2. He also mentions  the ease of driving them. I belive the sensitivty is 100dB +.  The other great thing is they ship them directly but there is some assembly required. Worth checking out.

Thiel CS 3.7 or CS 7.2 loudspeakers.

Happy Listening!

If your friend really wants a dynamic set of speakers to fill that room, don't mess around Spend a little bit of money. There's a pair of Von schweiker vr55 actives for sale on this very site And he would be more than satisfied

For 2 channel Moab Tekton great speakers, since it will used for hometheater call Erk at Tektonsesign , He can give you the best advise if the Moab are ok for HT.