Good Morning,
As a professional musician for about 30 years, speaker systems have always been something special and interesting to me. For several years, "back in the day", I actually had my own small company, which made both stereo speakers, and sound reinforcement speakers, for musicians. The first thing you should know is that all of us "hear differently". Sounds funny, I know, but it's absolutely true! What sounds wonderful to one person, sounds horrible to the next, and so on, and so forth. Everyone has their own personal taste in what sounds "real", or "natural", or even "good".
That having been said, the person you need to please is yourself, and nobody else!
As for myself, and I mean absolutely NO disrespect to anyone who feels differently, I have never found any speaker made by Bose to be an accurate reproducer of music. I have tested quite a few of them, using real time analyzers, and found them to be lacking in many ways. My own ears tell me the same thing. Now, tons of folks dearly love their Bose speakers, and I say to them, "go for it". If a speaker sounds good to you, then that's all that is important. Bose just doesn't get it for me, personally, and I want a speaker that is far more accurate in it's abililty to reproduce all sorts of music. You will have to decide, for yourself if you would like Bose, or any other brand, for that matter.
Next up for consideration is how much money you wish to spend on these speakers. If you are limited in your available cash, then, of course, your choices will be limited, too. Do you have any friends who are into real stereo systems? I'm not talking about the "all in one" systems that seem the rage these days. I've never heard a single one of those that were really first class, and all of them are lacking in full range sound and detail. If you have listened to a friend's system, and have liked it, then you might see what speakers he/she has, and seek some of those out for yourself. Otherwise, buying speakers you have never heard reproduce a variety of music, is rather like buying a pig in a poke: you never know what you're actually going to get!
One huge problem you're going to have to overcome, is that there are very few real Hi Fi stores these days. Most folks seem content with "muzak" type systems, which play background music. Others like "boom and sizzle", which they think equates to good bass and good highs, played really loudly.
But, true high fidelity is VERY hard to come by, these days. As for myself, I want a speaker that delivers music exactly as it was recorded, adding nothing extra along the way, and subtracting nothing. I want the full dynamic sound, just as if I was sitting front row, center, at a live concert. I also want something that give me that same performance at very soft volume, as well as being able to blow the glass out of the house with a cannon shot whilst watching a movie!! This kind of performance, unfortunately, does not come cheap, and finding speakers that will offer you those things is not an easy thing to do these days. VERY FEW speakers are currently being offered that can reproduce music the way it was originally recorded, at the full dynamic range, or at the other extreme, very softly.
So, where does that leave you? Well, first off, I'd suggest that you seek out a COMPETANT speaker repair facility, and see if your speaker drivers actually are in need of replacement. It's possible that they only need new foam "surrounds". Doing this is a fairly easy task, if you're a handy sort, and it's not that expensive, either. As an example, our stereo speakers, which are about 40 years young, have had their woofers refoamed, by an authorized service center, and are performing as good as new!!
As for suggestions of specific speakers for you, I am somewhat at a loss, given the dearth of such speakers on the market today. Also, what you like, and what I like, may well be very different. So, I hesitate to offer specific suggestions. But, I hope I've offered a bit of food for thought, if nothing else. And, again, and most importantly, the one person you have to please is yourself, and nobody else! Have fun in your search, and if you have any questions for me, please give me a shout, and I'll try to answer as best I can. But, I must honestly tell you, with speakers, firearms, and all other things, the more I learn, the less I seem to "know"!!
Take care, and God Bless!
Every Good Wish,
Doc
