I found this from Digg, where FirstAdopter aggregates several bad reviews on Bose.
The basic message is best voiced by Intellexual.net:
Bose, like Bang & Olufsen and Nakamichi, sell lifestyle and designer products whose prices are very heavily saturated by image and appeal. They are by no means, no means at all performance products. They have no cost-effectiveness, no bang-for-the-buck value, and draw no respect from any true audio enthusiasts. If your goal is to appeal to and impress housewives, then this system gets the job done, but if your goal is high fidelity, high performance, high endurance, upgradeability, and fair market value pricing then I would very highly suggest you look elsewhere
In the the 90s, I used to believe in Bose, until I found speakers that are similarly-priced but sound incredibly more crisp. Now, I am a firm believer that when a company spends too much money on showrooms and glitz, then they are compensating for something.