Whelp, the reason your Bose cubes fail to excite you is because they are terrible speakers. Sadly, you likely paid several hundred dollars for about $8 worth of speakers, which is how Bose manages to advertise EVERYWHERE and buy entire sections of stores to create the illusion that they are "high end".
Virtually anything will be better than Bose, including the Mirage speakers that seem to have caught your fancy. Based upon what you have expressed so far, I am assuming you are drawn to very compact, physically tiny speakers. The downside with that aesthetic is that compromises are unavoidable. Speakers are literally just pumps that move air and tiny speakers cannot move sufficient amounts of air to recreate sound in a natural and authentic manner.
You would be MUCH better served if you could bring yourself to consider a different aesthetic. Perhaps you wouldn't mind some slick-looking, fairly thin speakers that can be mounted to the wall? While fairly thin speaker are necessarily compromised as well, they can, at least, make use of larger drivers to move a more reasonable quantity of air.
Another option could be in-wall speakers or in-wall/on-wall hybrids.
Here are some speaker packages that I can recommend to you. These should be around your budget and while they are not tiny (like the Bose cubes or the Mirage speakers), they are certainly not large either:
- "The Speaker Company"
TSAT2000 system
and if you find the TSAT2000 speakers too large, there is a smally version with the
TSAT1000 speakers
- "Axiom Audio"
In-wall/On-wall hybrid speakers
- "EMP Tek"
Compact Home Theatre
I would personally look to any of those before I would go for the Mirage speakers. The Mirage speakers are just too diffuse to really deliver proper sound imaging and detail IMO. Particularly for videogames, it is important to be able to pin-point the direction and location of sounds. The Mirage speakers just make everything a large, mushy, diffuse mess IMO.
