a sort-of "backing into it" user of bose equipment- one is a lifestyle 30, fine for movies but for music, the best that could be said about it is that it makes bad recordings sound generally listenable, just don’t try to listen to any vocal music in surround sound, the surrounds drown out the vocals. an Acoustic Wave Music System, the best that could be said about that is it gets plenty loud, but the bass is underwhelming. a wave radio, it has better bass [!] than the Acoustic wave but doesn’t play half as loudly. it is easier on the ears, however, mellower. a cinemate SR 1 soundbar that manages the neat trick of wall-to-wall sound [but no depth] and of locking instrumental positions in place no matter where one sits or stands in the room, very rare feat. mellow/neutral tone quality even with crappy recordings, never harsh. it is the closest to a "wall of sound" even if it is virtual. a bose tv speaker, does its job of improving upon the crap speakers in typical panel tv sets, surprisingly neutral tonal balance and usably full bass down to about 50 cycles, drops off like a stone below that point. amazing for its tiny size. won’t get too loud, though, best used in bedroom-sized spaces. a set of bose NC headphones, use ’em for mowing the lawn. their sound quality is mediocre at best, veiled and non-musical in general. prolly the best of them all was the cinemate SR1, overall.
I’ve heard quite a few audiophile speakers that used expensive drivers in ways that...well, didn’t suit my taste. Quite a few speakers using Focal tweeters made me feel like that guy in the movie Seven Beauties who went to “better @@%%@!. Say what you want about Bose but a Bose speaker never made me want to leave the room.