If you looked at the Compact, you saw that there were no tone controls for either channel. The only options are the ToneMatch switches on/off. So what you were hearing had to come from the CD player or master mixer/console in-store. The GC around here has the Bosi free-standing from the standard speaker arrays. So I ask, what kind of CD player was used? Theirs, yours? I agree with Diki that the Bose columns tend to have more highs than mids, but that can be eliminated and/or improved with the use of a small mixer or the Bose ToneMatch engine.