Bose lifestyle 48

The biggest gripe I have with Bose is the price. For $4k and a bit of auditioning you could probably do a bit better or at least as good for less. Much of the price for Bose goes toward marketing. Don't believe people that tell you it is crap, it is not. I still think 901's do midrange better than most speakers at ANY cost.

A cheaper alternative would be Mirage Omnistat matched to a decent Marantz, Denon or Pioneer electronics. For subs I would look at Veleodyne, SVS and Martin Logan.

At $4k your options open up quite a bit.

Out here in Europe the Lifestyle 48 retails for EUR 5000 or USD 7000 !!!

I would look for a second hand Resolution Audio set and a pair of highly sensitive speakers (96db+) or DIY a single baffle like a SoloVox. Very musical, yet modern and versatile.

About a decade ago I bought the Bose Acoustimass-10 at $1,200 which happened to be my first introduction to "high-end" speakers. The biggest mistake of my life. About 8 months down the road I auditioned the B&W CDM series speakers with Arcam amplification and from that instant I knew the Bose was rubbish. Sold the Bose AM-10 at $350 about 3 years later. Like other folks, I would suggest opening up your options a bit. There will be better systems around for similar(or half) the price although the Lifestyle systems are a bit better having gone through several iterations throughout these years.

p/s: The AM-10 sounded good upon first listening impression.

Bose is OK for home theatre although it IS wildly overpriced for the quality. For 2 channel music it would be a huge mistake. You would have to do some research, but a good used integrated amp and a pair of full range speakers purchased on Audiogon would be vastly better.