What is better than Bose but costs less?

Assuming you're not just asking to stir up the natives, as others have pointed out you need to define a price range and application.

Assuming you're willing to buy used, a simple, versatile, nice little system would be a Linn Classik for $800-900 and a pair of Dynaudio Audience 50 bookshelf speakers ($400-450). That would be roughly the cost of some Bose systems I've seen walking through Best Buy, and would sound much much better.

"Got no HIGHS - Got no LOWS - Must be Bose."

Agree with Invincible, in that the person asking this question needs to step away from the Best Buys and Circuit Cities and visit some "mid-fi" types of stores. Most of these stores nowadays mostly deal in home theater, but nevertheless carry some quality products. In my neck of the woods (northern Virginia) I would recommend Audio Buys or Myer-Emco and even Tweeters (even thought they do sell Bose) In these chains you'll find products from Denon, Rotel, Integra, Boston Acoustics, NHT, Energy, Paradigm, B&W, Polks ect. Guaranteed you can but together a much better sounding system (and for probably a lot less money) than what a Bose system would cost you.

I agree with Kthomas,the Linn Classik is a great performer,
in my opinion there is no Bose that can compete, however little people known the Linn Classik, many Bose.

Oh Man, don't get me started! Bose is a marketing company that steals technology, repackages it in the cheapest form they can come up with (that is their research)and then sells it through lot of advertising. They have hurt the directives of audio companies throughout the world. Now the average person thinks that speakers must be small to be visually acceptable. Wifes have banished most speakers larger than a shoebox to the garbage..because of Bose. You can't cheat physics, and they seem to think they can with most of their stuff. Most any other product will sound better for less money. It may be a little bigger, but it will certainly be better and cost less. Listen for yourself. If you want an inexpensive, impresive and fairly small package, try the SLS system sold at Best Buy. Otherwise, the world is full of better stuff. Good luck.