The RCF stuff is some of the best speakers in the midrange market, but these are going to be more than your $1000 budget. Yamaha, and JBL are really dominant at this price range. Personally I think that pushing your budget would be worth it, see elsewhere on the forums for Debbie Dunkley's comments about finally taking the plunge on a Danley system having owned a decent JBL SRX system, I think that says it all.
Agree that RCF does great in the mid-range market. The TT25A Mk II, and TT5A, are two of the few 15" two-way speakers that don't have that typical indistinct mid-range. Meyer, Nexo, L'Acoustics all have good 15" two-way, even the Martin CDD 15 is pretty good. When you get into that price bracket though - why not go 3-way? I've never heard any 12" or 15" 2-way sound as articulate as a 3-way speaker.
12" vs 15" two way - they're both compromised. Either the mid-range is weak with 15" (right in the vocal range) or the low-mids are weak with 12" (about where the subs start taking over). If there is bass to be reproduced - there's subs for that. Thus the only argument I've heard for 15" 2 way that makes sense is they typically have slightly higher output.