I had just been to an exclusive Sony Showroom just to check out their HTIB systems; but came back totally disappointed, both with the performance and the staff at the showroom. They did not bother to keep the remote control handy to change the sound settings; and when asked, replied that they did not keep it alongwith the system on display. Secondly, all the speakers(5 + subwoofer) were kept very close together completely defeating the purpose of a surround sound system. The sales staff seemed to know nothing about surround sound, and they were repeatedly trying to keep the sound down when I tried to take it to the maximum volume.
The sound was nowhere near a true tower speaker system coupled with an AV Receiver, and as pointed out earlier in this chain, it feels like sound just coming out of speakers and is far from a "Live" experience.
On the other hand, when I visited a showroom selling component based systems, the first thing the guy did was to ask me the size of my listening room. Then he gave me several options in terms of amplifiers, speakers(towers, bookshelves, the works...), etc. and then proceeded to give me a live demo of the systems available with him. What I liked was, that he played the part of an advisor rather than a salesman.
Still I would suggest that, if at all you decide to go for such HTIB systems due to budget constraints, since they are definitely cheaper than separate components, please follow some basic guidelines.
1. Take some of your own music to test the system. This guy played me some Marathi tracks on the 1000 W system (DUH !!), and I had to stop him midway in order to play my own CD's.
2. Gradually increase the volume to the maximum and see if it jarrs, or sounds harsh. A good speaker will not jarr at high volume levels.
3. Audio and mp3 CD's will never produce a surround sound, so do take some DVD's to test the 5.1 channel effect.
4. The dealer is always in a hurry to sell you the system, this one kept asking me when I wanted to finalize, and offered to reduce the price and give me a good deal, without even asking me the size of my room.
Take your own time, play as many diverse tracks as possible to test how the system handles all the frequencies. The best system may not always be the most expensive one. See what appeals to your ears, each listener has his own perception.
Many of us do not know what is available in the market in terms of component based systems, since we are conditioned to believe that some mainstream brands are the "best". However, if you have a real ear for music, I would suggest you stretch your budget thinking of it as a long term investment rather than a simple purchase of a Music System, do some research on the Net (incidentally this site is one of the best resources for doing that) and go for component based systems. I am not promoting or even criticizing any brand here, but just conveying my thoughts on what I have experienced first hand.