I think the Bose speaker systems sound alright. I visited an outlet store the other day where they had everything set up nicely. They did sound ok, but I felt a bit underwhelmed.

Bose seems to be trying to fill in a niche in the market by making their speakers so small and touting that so much. The problem is that none of us (us being the people in this forum) care if our speakers are hidden. In fact, I'll bet pretty much all of us want people to notice our systems. We just don't really want to pay extra so that our systems are invisible.

The heavier flame seems to come from some people who don't realize this, expecting that every speaker system created is supposed to fit "their" needs. Not really a big deal though, as everyone has their own tastes. To each his own.