I'm considering surprising my husband with a new surround sound system for our family room...?

Yes there are other wireless systems. You can get a better system than bose for less money. Another thing to consider is if you have HDTV. You'll want a system with HDMI inputs and outputs. Go to bestbuy.com or circuitcity.com and search through their stuff.

As a former sales guy at a major store the Polk once made a big center piece speaker with a sub for something akin to surround but the Bose actually is 3 speakers with a DVD player. All major stores have instillation available and to get actual surround sound by every piece separately this way is something breaks you do not have to buy a whole new unit. Surround sound systems in a box are terrible if being used for the main room. They offer no ability to upgrade and always sacrifice something to make cheap. I have the same speaker I bought 8 years ago but upgraded my receiver and have BluRay and HDDVD and my system ROCKS. I hate bose by the way because their speakers are made of cardboard and crack over time.

i know i would love that, and bose is pretty good, i'd get him that

maybe not but they suck. get a wireless 5.1 system so all he has to do is hang them...it will sound much more realistic

I have a friend that is really into all that "tech" stuff, and he always tells me that Bose makes the best speakers out there. Other than that I would shop around and even consider asking the people at best buy, circut city, or where ever you're going to look at the models. I would stick with what you can get and look for something like the quality of the speakers, not just the price. Again I hear Bose makes the best speakers, so I would stick with them.

2 speakers cannot create realistic surround sound. If you want a decent sound system, avoid mainstream brands like Bose and Sony and look at something decent like Naim.