Reference to what? None of those manufacturers would be considered purveyors of reference systems.
The whole term of "Reference Quality" or a "Reference Standard" in audio is rather silly to begin with. If you go over to England - in particular, a famous recording studio like Abbey Road - you'll find it stocked with B&W speakers - likely the 800 Series Diamond. And indeed, I personally find the 802 Diamond to be one of the finest speakers for home use that is out there...period.
But head on over the France and you're far more likely to find Focal/JM Lab speakers. Focal's Professional SM11 line would be my personal choice for in-studio monitors and I'm a very big fan of their Electra Be Series home speakers (although they still have a touch of cabinet coloration).
Come over to the USA and walk into a THX mixing studio and you'll find M&K monitors or the same B&W speakers as Abbey Road. You can easily bring MK Sound speakers into your home - and indeed, many people have done just that!
If you go into Indy Movie Blu-ray/DVD authorization specialist Criterion, you'll find something that you might not expect: an Axiom Epic 80 home theater speaker system from internet-direct, Canadian speaker company Axiom Audio!
And go into any professional mixing studio and you can expect to find a wide variety of speaker manufacturers: JBL Professional, Genelec, Blue Sky Audio, Fostex, Fosgate, Tannoy, Yamaha, etc.
My point is, there IS no "reference standard". The only reference is the system and room in which whatever recording you are presently listening to was mixed! Whatever speakers they used and whatever room they were in - THAT is what the final mixers heard and ANYTHING else is going to sound different!
So it's a bit harsh to say that none of Klipsch, Polk or Paradigm's speakers can be considered "reference". Case in point, there are several dubbing stages that use Klipsch speakers - just as there are many commercial movie theaters that use Klipsch speakers. And if you are looking for a sound that is similar to Focal at a lower price point, Paradigm's Signature Series actually comes quite close. In particular, the small Signature S1 Be speaker makes for quite a good mini-monitor in a studio setup - very similar in transparency to the Focal SM6 Solo6 Be.
The real goal of ANY so-called "reference" system can only be to play back any given recording with as little change or added distortion to the original signal as possible. The only consistent goal that can be attributed to all "reference" systems is transparency -an absence of any sort of character or alteration.
So plenty of unlikely brands could be considered "reference" speakers. So long as the goal is to be as neutral as possible. One could easily make the case that Emotiva's speakers adhere to the same goals as any "reference" speaker. So too do Axiom's for the most part. And so too do Paradigm's or Klipsch's THX or Klipschorn speaker lines.
Indeed, "in reference to what?" is a fair question. In all honesty, we can only hope to hear what the sound engineers wanted for us to hear. And one of the primary goals of any mixer or sound engineer is for the sound they create to "translate" very well to systems OTHER than the one that they used to create the final recording!
So, as home users, we can really only strive for a transparent system - one that will not add distortion, won't alter the frequency response and will also be capable of playing back all of the sounds that were intended to be heard. There are a great many home speaker options that can achieve that goal to greater or lesser extents. There are also a great many "audiophile" speaker brands that many people like and praise, yet do not strictly adhere to the goal of transparency. Instead, many "audiophile" brands purposely alter the frequency response in order to create a distinct "brand character" such as a "warm" sound or a "detailed" sound. B&O is a great example - they don't strive for transparency. They have their own "signature sound character" and when they design a new speaker, they compare it to their existing speakers to make sure that it sounds like the rest of their lineup. They don't aim for any sort of "ideal" - just a consistent sound across their entire brand.
Anywho, I think that what they OP is after when he asks for a "reference" system is simply a system that plays back all of the recorded sound (doesn't leave anything out or "miss" anything) and doesn't add distortion or alter the recorded sound. I believe he is after transparency so that he can feel reasonably sure that he is hearing what the sound engineers intended for him to hear.
To that end - in this price range and given this selection of choices, I would opt for the Paradigm Studio speakers. They are essentially "boring". They don't really "stand out" in any way. They don't emphasize anything. They don't de-emphasize anything. A lot of people feel that they are over-priced because they don't immediately sound like anything "special". They don't "sparkle", they don't "slam", they don't sound "warm", nor do they "pop". They just pretty much "tell it like it is", so it's up to the recording to sound "special" in some way. That's neutrality. And to me, that's the same goal as "reference".
