I would suggest that anyone looking for a decent, halfway-concealable sound system look into the various Home Theater In A Box systems available. The satellite speakers are very small, and their lack of size is compensated for by their subwoofers. The systems come with a 6-channel (Dolby 5.1) receiver which can accept all kinds of inputs. Most receivers have a built-in DVD player, which will play your CD's, too. You can get quite a good system for $400. Sony, Kenwood, Onkyo, several others all make fine systems in this price range - and once you've found a place to park the sub, the other speakers take up very little space. Most systems even come with pre-cut speaker wires to make hookup easy.
Michael
Do these systems automatically adjust low frequency output with volume adjustment? Do they have proprietary software that customizes individual speaker equalization to compensate for specific room acoustics?
You get what you pay for.