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BOSE actually makes great products, they get a lot of flack from audiophiles for not being true to rules of hi-fi audio and they use relatively cheap components but they are like Apple. You pay for simplicity and a great overall experience. Forget the haters, give it a try and return it if you don't like it.
HTIB (home theatre in a box), most of these suck, over priced plastic junk. Theres a few good ones out there that are near the $1000 mark but at that price you might as well go for a speaker/receiver setup. Also I'm not too keen on combining a Blu-Ray player with a receiver/amplifier, not a good idea if one component fails.
True 5.1 setup... 5 speakers, subwoofer and a receiver. Hands down the best surround effect and sound quality (depending on your hardware), sky is the limit as far as price goes, its easy to spend thousands on this stuff and not really need it. Main issue is config, tuning, speaker placement, tweaking, running wires, tuning, hiding wires, tweaking. Check out the Energy Take 5.1 speaker package and get a decent low end receiver for a few hundred bucks.
Soundbars, most of these suck but there are a few good ones and a few decent cheap ones. Unless you go with a $1000-3000 Yamaha sound bar you will not get realistic surround sound at all. Check out the reviews on CNET, Sony and Harman Kardon make some decent ones, also VIZIO makes a dirt cheap one that sounds great for the price.
ZVOX Soundbase, I've had all of the above and in the past year have switched my living room and bedroom over to these. Made with good quality drives, wood enclosure, solid build, warm sound, very musical. Check out the reviews, you can get them on sale at Visions or for really cheap refurbished on eBay. The 555 or 580 are great for large living rooms, and don't let the 220 model fool you, this small box with rock your room. These won't give you true surround sound but they look neat, are simple to setup and sound 100000000x better than TV speakers.
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