A few years ago I bought a Lifestlye 25 for £2300. It is very compact but thats about the only thing I found it had going for it after living with it for a couple years. If you love music then IMO just forget a Bose Lifestyle system, if your only want a compact system and your watching is mainly movies then I'd say its an option for you.
One thing you need to remember is that with Bose your paying a premium for the product, and a fairly hefty one at that. The system I have now has cost me about the same, but I'm only running 2.1 at the minute. Other than the sub its no more intrusive than the Bose was and the speakers in fact look a lot better, but the sound quality is leaps and bounds above what the Bose was.
Here is how much flexiblity the back of my amp has compared to virtually nothing on a Bose =ÿhttp://www.eu.onkyo.com/ir_img/18814710_653973176c.jpg . My amp includes all HD sound format processing, auto setup, 1080p upscaling for all sources, video switching, HDMI inputs and is totally flexible, non of which the Bose gives you.
I would seriously think about what you want out of your system before buying a Bose because if you end up unhappy with it, as I REALLY did, its an expensive lesson to learn. Like I say Ive spent around the same on what I have now and it blows the Bose out of the water, plus I can upgrade individual components as and when I choose, I wont have to simply sell the whole thing at a massive loss (£500 for a 2 and half year old system with the Bose) and start again. There are also solutions available that are as compact as the Bose speakers but sound better, and an AV amp isnt going to take up silly amounts of space. The only place you generally lose out space wise is with a sub as the more performanc you want the bigger the box generally speaking, but even small subs go lower and perform better than the Bose one, which isnt actually a sub at all. Notice how they market it as a bass unit, thats because they cant call it a sub because it isnt one.
I can direct you in the direction of some options if your so desire, just let me know.ÿ