Sounds like you're in an interesting possition.
Well I'm very familiar with all the speakers recomended here. And I can mostly say that the majority of these speakers are not all that strongly dynamically overall! Yeah they're ok, but play rock through em at good levels, and you'll find they can't kick out the emotion and dynamic transparancy you'll find even in the Pro audio cicuit!
There's a few schools of thought here(even comming from an audiophiles perspective, of which I'm one)....First, if your buddy isn't really a died-in-the-wool audiophile tweek, then you might be trying to get him into what YOU CONSIDER a very high end sounding and refined sound, that he may or may not ultimatley care about as much as you!!! yeah a lot of us are into finding sonic VALHALLA for our own tastes in sonic purity, but is he that same way? You might want to find that out. Infact, I find that MOST ALL of the audiophiles I run into, have systems that ultimatley are not strong enough to do rock so well, and do better with less demanding material. If he likes the clear and refined sound you're getting from your system(?), then he may be in for some more upscale stuff. However, a balance may be in order.
A lot of the high end speakers out there, I've found time and time again, just really aren't all that well suited for rock and roll or heavy dynamic stuff, yes. They ALL SOUND A BIT POLITE AND WEAK SOUDING ultimately! If you doubt this, just take your buddy to this up coming CES show in Las Vegas in Jan, go to any high end audio room, and ask em to put on some heavy Rock and Roll at a good level through their speakers!!!!...see what happens!! First, everyone will run for the door in embarasement, as most audiophiles have ROCK FOBIA who are into the high end. They mostly crave Dianna Krall, Ella, and Pawn shop!!!...yes it's true.
Infact,Legend has it that one rather "TROUBLED" ex-Stereophile reviewer, named Corey Greenberg, was well known to have been the talk of much "UNEASINESS" at "shows". It seems Corey had the propensity for going to different demo rooms to demo speakers, with AC/DC or "talica" in hand, and used to have them CRANK UP THE VOLUME to see what their speakers could do!!!!...you can immagine how well he was received by the manufacturers! (I love it!!!).
Anyway, rock is not always what comes to mind in high end speakers. Infact, a lot of Pro audio stuff is better suited to do what you want from a rock music and such sadely. And basically, you'll find the line of speakers that proceeds from the aduiophile breed is rather delicate an polite...NOT ROCKS FINEST HOUR FOR DEMO PURPOSES I SUGGEST!
But fear not. If he really likes loud rock and such, and he's interested in the more refined sound to go with it, he'll at least need to BIAMP some of the speakers mentioned in the above posts! He'll need all the help he can get dynamically in a speaker. So biamping the likes of B&W 800 series(Matrix or nautilus), NHT 3.3's, Hales Transcendence 5's or above, Dunlavy SCIV's or higher, Martin Logan SL3's or better(if you'r into "stats"), etc.
Biamping any and all of these speakers I just named will give him plenty of kick, dynamics, and pace, as well as audiphile high end refinement, clarity, and adequate detail for his needs I suspect! If you go with some Thiel 2.3's, Ariel 10 T-s, "Vandies", "Maggies", whatever, you'll be rather dissapointed with your Rock and heavy pop! The sound will be a bit ANEMIC!...if just clear and pretty!
Another approach for you to consider would be to find him some more high end and refined POWERED speakers! Using something like NHT VT3's or Infinity Prelud MTS towers, at like $3-4K used respectively, will yield PLENTY OF AUDIOPHILE REFINEMENT for his purposes, and will have VERY VERY GOOD DYNAMICS AND SLAM FOR ROCK AND SUCH!
both of those speaekrs have built in 500-800 watt powered subwoofers, which will sound infinitly more powerful than what's coming out of a standard passive speaker!(although biamping helps those somewhat). These speakers are both borderline class A rated, and will DEMOLISH most everything else in Class A dyanamically!
Other considerations might be totally ACTIVE POWERED speakers, such as are made by ATC or PMC and such, if you want do for go your amp chioces that is.
Again, besides something like a used pair of Avantegarde horn loaded speakrs with powered woofers, you'll not be gettin better dynamics for rock and roll speakers!...save perhaps for active pro monitors, which are close.
If he sticks with what I mentioned, and biamps the standard passive chioces(NHT, B&W, Hales,Dunlavy,Logans, etc), he'll do fine. He can do a bit better perhaps, with the powered NHT VT3's or Infinity MTS towers however. Powered pro monitors are kind of a "MAYBE" for most audiophiles, but should be looked at for the rock enthusiest.
Or unless he's into sitting between two horn speakrs, you might consider the high end AVANTGARDE line of speakers! You'll not find any more dynamic speakers probably ever, and they're very high end sounding class A line of monitors.
good luck
