It may not meet your needs but it is perfect for me. I listen to soul, rap, hip-hop, and r&b. I own a Bose Acoustimass 5 series II speaker system, and it has been the greatest electronic investment of my life! This is the one with the Acoustimass module and the two cube arrays. I bought the system for $700 about six years ago. (Today, you can get a system for about $450.) Other comments have said that the sound is weak, but I can blast mine quite loud in my room! Although I have connected another bass to it, the satellite (tweeters) are what I enjoy the most. I believe their pitch of range is more than just "high" notes. In the music I listen to, they are not muffled, the sound is crisp and clear and it has performed and fulfilled my expectations year after year. These are not "super-powerful blow your ears out speakers," but for those who do not necessarily need the "boom." I do not listen to heavy metal, hard rock, or alternative, so it may be different for those listeners.

I originally set up the system with a powerless, $150 Magnavox mini-system I bought in 1992. The speakers far outperformed the Magnavox mini-system. Many people told me things like ?wow, you spent too much money, especially my parents. But I believed it was well worth the money.? I now have it connected to a Kenwood 104AR amplifier, much more powerful than my original mini-system, and the clarity of the ?highs? of the Bose Acoustimass 5 system are truly amazing. Several people have said to me, ?you have the best system I have ever heard.? While I am sure there are better sound systems in the market, they are sure to cost much more. For the amount of money the Bose Acoustimass 5 speaker system costs, it is worth every penny spent. I have been using these speakers nearly everyday for the past 6 years, and the quality of sound has never diminished.

To give you a picture of how I have the system set up, the room is like a square, I have the bass module facing about 6 inches from a corner (it seems to produce the best sound that way), and the two cube arrays mounted to diagonal corners of the room. The individual cube arrays are twisted (about what I would guess) 30 degrees apart. In this set up, the sound reflects off of the walls quite beautifully.

One small piece of advice, mostly common sense? in the bass module, there is a hole where the sound comes out, about six inches deep, there is a protective screen to keep things (like bugs) out. Make sure you realize that the hole is large enough so little children can reach into it and remove the screen! They can then put things (like toys) in it and you will not be able to get them out! (One of my little cousins almost did that. The screen was partially removed, however she didn?t stick anything into it. I went to several outlets to see what I could do about my partially removed screen, and they said not to worry about it, if any bugs were to get in, they would not be able to stand the noise.