(sorry about the length of this post)

I'm sitting here listening to a Panasonic HTiB system that cost me 280 bucks at Circuit City. I've got a Paradigm Monitor/Yamaha system at home and needed something cheap for a college apartment. I looked all over and ended up with this one. After listening to it for about 3 months, I've come up with a theory about illusions in sound.......

Most audiophiles would think this system is a joke. All 5 speakers are powered by the subwoofer, and without the subwoofer, the system just sounds like a room full of tweeters. However, I recently listened to the DTS sampler CD with this system, and I was blown away! Not even by the movie portions, but specifically the live Allison Kraus performance at the end. I closed my eyes and listened to the song, and even after being exposed to Paradigm Reference, B&W Nautilus, Martin Logan, etc., I really could not believe I was listening to such a cheap system. To me, what really stood out was the treble detail and the bass. Because it has a small subwoofer, I think an unexpected effect is fairly well-defined bass. It rarely is ever too much bass.

I thought this over and got to thinking that I think the presence of obvious treble and bass lead some consumers to believe they're listening to a "high end" system. Even though, the mid range is pretty much a joke on this system, I really think the presence of detailed treble and subtle bass makes this system really sound high-end. I just found this to be an interesting observation, because this system should be at about the bottom of the barrel regarding sound quality. Instead, the treble and bass created this illusion for me that I was listening to a very expensive system. Seems to be the same impression I've had with some sets of computer speakers. Of course, doing a side-by-side comparision would suggest a completely different point of view, but just by itself, has anyone else noticed similar effects with cheaper systems? I know I'm a pretty new person to high-end audio, but nonetheless, my initial impression of this system is somehow detailed tweeters and the perfect amount of bass seem to really push this system way above it's intended market. Anyone else notice this "illusion" in cheaper stuff?