According to Klipsch, they don't have those anymore so I'd have to see if someone else had them. Don't mind looking for them but that means I have to buy everything separately and as long as they don't jack up the price because it's not bundled, I'd do it. What do you think?
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As someone who owns both the older reference II series and both the new premier and reference series, I'd go for the cheaper reference over the older series. The new series are significantly more accurate and don't suffer the piercing brightness of the older designs, in addition, the 90x90 modified tractrix horn is a major improvement over the previous 90x60 design, in addition to having a wider dispersion pattern vertically, the improved design gives wider coverage at higher frequencies, the old horn design shows a very steep roll off starting at around 8khz with as little as 15° off axis. The most recent design found in the newer series manages even coverage (-6dB) up to 14khz +-45° off axis.
While offering greater sensitivity than non horn loaded speakers, when compared alongside the reference II models, the reference and premier series aren't as efficient. It seems the horn was designed to function more as a waveguide, with acoustic loading being a secondary objective. Klipsch rates their sensitivity in a reverberant field (basically in room with reflections), and therefore, they're useless. Going based on sound and vision's reviews, their speakers are consistently rated about 3-4dB higher than an anechoic rating, so the R 260f is likely around 94dB.
Outside of the r-115sw, I would agree with other posters on the sub. There is nothing inherently wrong with Klipsch subwoofers from an accuracy or volume standpoint, but they generally have lousy -3dB extensions. There is no excuse for a 12" subwoofer to fail to reach at least 25hz, and for the price, you could get a much better sub.
The decision to purchase r-28f's over r-26f's depends entirely on the size of your room and how far away you sit. With klipsch, it does not take much speaker to fill a room with clean, undistorted sound. My room is 20'x12' and my listening position is 9.5' away. I had no trouble reaching reference levels without distortion using R-15m bookshelves.
Unless you have a huge dedicated theater with multiple rows and seats greater than 12' away, you'd be better off applying your budget to a pair of RP-160m bookshelves instead of the lower model reference floor models. The biggest sound quality differences between the reference and the premier series is across the bass and lower mids, where the woofer operates. The cerametallic woofers found in the premier series are much stiffer than the IMG woofers, and offer much lower distortion and better transient response at high levels. In addition, the tractrix port design is better at avoiding "chuffing", in the lower model reference series, port noise becomes a real problem below 80hz at high levels.
Ironically, the aluminum tweeter in the reference series measures slightly more accurate than the titanium in the premier series. The titanium tweeters display a 4dB spike at around 16khz, while the aluminum tweeters do not.
For a 5.1 setup, you could get a pair of RP-160ms on eBay open box for $400, an RP-450c for $450, and R-15ms for the surrounds for $200. With a $2k budget, that leaves about $950 for a sub. If you'd like to cut the cost down a bit more, rp-150ms can be had on eBay for $250, and an an rp-250c for $280. With the R-15ms that comes out to about $750. I believe an svs PB 2000 is about $700, which pretty much equals the same amount ($1450) you were going to spend on the r-26f system. Klipsch constantly runs stupidly low price sales, and people buy several sets and resell them on eBay for a discount after the sale, which is why they can be found cheaper when going that route.
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