LOL - This is funny...
Just for fun...
http://www.us.onkyo.com/model.cfm?m=HT-SR800&p=s&class=Systems
56" of incredible speaker power for under $500.00
That must mean that this setup is about 40% better than Bose! Quite the deal considering it likely runs 50% or more less than most Bose setups.
Anyway, speaker 'material' should be considered in this joke of an example only by determining the actual suface area of the speakers involved.
3.14 x radius of speaker x radius of speaker.
For your example that equals:
BOSE: 114 square inches of speaker material
AVERAGE BRAND: 100.5 square inches of speaker material
MY ONKYO EXAMPLE: 232 square inches! (subtract 16.5 square inches to go from 7.1 to 5.1 if you want)
Anyway, quite clearly the Onkyo, at $500, is over twice as good as the Bose, or average HTIB setup.
REALLY BORED!