Would I have bought one purely from looking at a picture. No But a neighbour has one. And during a few drinks put it on. I was floored. It's never going to hit the volume of a hi-fi but it was enough to get rid of ours. It's the only thing me and the Mrs play music through now in the house. So volume wise is more than good unless you like your ears to bleed Suppose you do need to hear it for your own personal taste tbh
Not sure where else there is a Bose shop but the one at the designer outlet at York is very good and you can test the speakers. They also price match if you seen them cheaper else where as long as can show em on ya phone.
There is a British company called Azatom that do a range of well-priced speakers including link-up sets. I bought one of their TV soundbars a couple of years ago and it does everything we wish for. Can also stream spotify to it or bluetooth various devices. Never got around to buying the subwoofer that you can twin to it cos quite frankly it sounds good on it's own https://www.azatom.com/speakers Like others, I am amazed by the quality of sound that comes from 'soap-sized' speakers. My little Google Home Mini gives me great Spotify sound when I'm WFH
We've got the Bose Revolve and Revolve Plus. If you look around you can pick the smaller one up for about £150/£160 they do sound really week especially if you like the low end sound