Quote:

...how high would I have to go on a set of speakers to sound noticably better than the Bose units on my system?

Any decent set of bookshelf loudspeakers and a decent budget subwoofer would have to sound better then your Bose system. I would almost guarantee that a pair of Dayton B652s and a Dayton SUB-80 for $120 total would sound better than that Acousticmass stuff.

http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-652 http://www.parts-express.com/pe/showdetl.cfm?Partnumber=300-631

I have a set of the Dayton B652s i use in the basement, and yes they cost $25 a pair, talk about price-to-value ratio, but they rock. I always had fights with my brother about Bose stuff, but he still bought them, when he blew a driver, he bought a pair of PSB alphas, and was kicking himself for spending all that money and time with the crappy Bose system. 

here is a review of the Dayton B652s

http://news.cnet.com/8301-13645_3-20005175-47.html

The truth is just about any halfway decent small speakers and a sub will sound better then the Bose  system you currently have. Jackfish and ikymagoo are steering you in the right direction.

If you enjoy listening to the Bose then I would stick with those. But if you don't like them As you can see it won't take a ton of money to upgrade.

Methinks you had an idea the response about Bose might be a little negative. You didn't expect it to be totally negative. Could it be you were asking for conformational purposes. Being over 60 and not having "golden ears" is not restricted to you. It's also not related to being able to hear how awful most Bose speakers sound. The fact is that when comparing Bose speakers to any other comparable (price wise) ones Bose always come off as second best.

The truth is, the only thing Bose does well is use deceptive advertising.

BTW: You did use Commence Firing as the title of this thread.