Have you considered the Specialized Infinity Armadillo? They have a nearly continuous strip of tread right down the middle which minimizes rolling resistance and noise (practically zero) while still offering some tread and extra grip on turns. Max PSI is 100-110. I am running 700c 32 and 35. I assume they are available in 26.

For those of you that may not have heard, a few months ago Specialized announced a no questions asked return policy. Even my LBS guy said basically you could come in every 6 months or so and get new tires. Seems like they would figure out a way to keep that from happening, but he was trying to illustrate his understanding of how liberal the policy is.
FWIW,
Raymond