When we had a retail store, we kept a pair of Bose cubes with a sub on display (not for sale).

When someone would talk about buying Bose, we'd fire up the demo. Listen to the Bose. They sound fine. Switch to another brand (in our case, the Energy Take 2.2s).

Suddenly, you had some decent midrange. The voices in vocalists were much more apparent. Some instruments were obscured in the Bose and were there with the Energy. Then there is the bass. Much more, solid, deeper, not boomy, but you could tell the solid foundation was there.

With our customers, we didn't bash Bose. We just said "listen for yourself, and if you like the Bose better, then buy them." By the way, the Energy system offered more power in the sub, a true two way system in the satellite rather than two 2-3/4" mid-tweets in the Bose, and the cost was about 2/3 of the Bose system.

Bottom line: Bose sounds fine if that's all you have heard. If you A-B them with another good brand, you will probably choose the other brand and save a good 30% in the process.

BTW, we did the same A-B on Pioneer speakers that about 80% of the servicemen brought home from Viet Nam. Swore they were the best they had ever heard. These had the lattice-work wood front grilles - you old timers will remember them. We let clients listen to them and then to some newer speakers, and suddenly their old Pioneers were not the best they had ever heard.