That's what I was trying to get at. My experience too has been that they are fine enough systems but they cost to much and I have little patience for their advertising. I bought an amp and speakers almost a decade ago now which were not Bose and they are also going strong. Except this system was a fraction of what I could have paid for a Bose.

I get it too, that when buying a Bose it's like buying a Mac: you just have to shell out the money and all the though of making a computer is abstracted from you. It can be cheaper if you piece a PC together yourself but not everyone has time or patience for that. Paying for Bose is paying for something that 'just works'.