Two Questions...

Bose is lots of marketing and little in the way of performance.

If you want speakers you can't see there are options.
I'm getting ready to set up a buddy with all NHT SuperZero Xu's which are small wall/ceiling mount speakers that are white. They don't reproduce much bass but a good sub can fill in nicely for home theater.

I'm going to use a Denon AVR-1906 for the system. It won't win any Golden Ear awards but it is flexible and suits his needs.

When looking for a subwoofer keep in mind that really cheap subs do more wrong than right. This holds especialy true when it is asked to compensate for very bass-shy main speakers.

For the same dollar as the Bose system (if not less) you can easily get much better performance.

Good luck!

Look at the email address, guys! Methinks a troll, perhaps?

Swamp,

No, I think he's a serious seeker. His name is John and he's participated quite civily in a few other thresds. Do you think he could be doing market research for Bose??

Oh boy! You asked for it.

Bose says that this system "Effortlessly blends with your décor". This is quite accurate, and if this is very important to you then you will be happy with the Bose system.

Twice as nice at half the price!
http://www.klipsch.com/product/product.aspx?cid=42