If you want to go cheap: Get a set of 2ce Signatures and power them with a mccormack dna 1 or .5 rev A. You will get great sound from this and probably won't need a subwoofer. I feel that from a price/performance/packaging viewpoint, the 2cesig is his best speaker. In some ways I preferred the speed of the 2ceSig to the bass of the 3aSig's.
If you want to go cheap and have bass, I would just go for the 3aSig's, a mcormack dna1 or 225, and skip the subwoofer. This combo has awesome bass. You should be able to get those for 2-2.2K. Try to get a dna1 w/revA.
The 5 is a world class loudspeaker. The 5 and my current eidolons are my two favorite speakers of all time. The avanti running a close 3rd. The model 5 does offer something unique in that you can drive it with a smaller amp & save money there. I drove my set with a 100w audio research vt100m2. Match made in heaven. It gave me the lowend power of a solid state amp, the midrange of a tube amp, and the coherency of an integrated rull range speaker. I think it would be reasonable to use a 125w dna .5 to drive them. The five is an enormous step up from the 2's. The downside is that you really need a big room for them to sound good and you need to have the hipass filter between the amp and preamp. I sold my set because I couldn't get them to sound good in my L shaped 16x12 room without moving them 5 feet into the room. You might be able to pick up a used set of 5's for 7-8K now that the 5a is out. The 5 had the most perfect integration of heavy bass and mid/hi range. I've never been able to get a subwoofer to match a mains speaker as well. In fact I've kind of given up on subwoofers.
If you want to go cheap and have bass, I would just go for the 3aSig's, a mcormack dna1 or 225, and skip the subwoofer. This combo has awesome bass. You should be able to get those for 2-2.2K. Try to get a dna1 w/revA.
The 5 is a world class loudspeaker. The 5 and my current eidolons are my two favorite speakers of all time. The avanti running a close 3rd. The model 5 does offer something unique in that you can drive it with a smaller amp & save money there. I drove my set with a 100w audio research vt100m2. Match made in heaven. It gave me the lowend power of a solid state amp, the midrange of a tube amp, and the coherency of an integrated rull range speaker. I think it would be reasonable to use a 125w dna .5 to drive them. The five is an enormous step up from the 2's. The downside is that you really need a big room for them to sound good and you need to have the hipass filter between the amp and preamp. I sold my set because I couldn't get them to sound good in my L shaped 16x12 room without moving them 5 feet into the room. You might be able to pick up a used set of 5's for 7-8K now that the 5a is out. The 5 had the most perfect integration of heavy bass and mid/hi range. I've never been able to get a subwoofer to match a mains speaker as well. In fact I've kind of given up on subwoofers.