Friends hi-fi system not very good, what do you do or say?

"Audio systems tend to be private affairs I guess.  I don't necessarily want to hang out with someone and listen to tunes. Those wonderful College days where it made a lot of sense are long gone."

@emergingsoul 

That explains why, even on an audio site like this you don't want to say what components you use. As far as listening to music with friends is concerned, why    did that stop making sense, and why?

I'm sure that you won't reply, but I had to ask anyway.

Personally, I try not to mention any details about my system.

I've noticed that.

Here is some life advice: If you don't have anything nice to say, shut the f*&^# up. 

This rule applies well beyond the question asked.  Cheers!

Every system can sound good if set up right, even a Bose. If you appreciate music, and appreciate even more what someone can do with ‘low-Fi” you can find something to like in every system nearly. Now, if they have it set up poorly, I would say it sounds good but ask them if they have tried experimenting with speaker placement, etc.

After all, what are we really talking about here? A bunch of boxes in a closed room trying to approximate, for example, an orchestra in a huge hall….never going to happen. If some boxes are a little better than other boxes, they’re all still producing sound waves in a small room. Even the cheap ones.

What I think is really bad are those people with multibuck systems with absolutely no concern paid to set up or room. Those can actually sound pretty bad too!

You're close to the third rail here....."Honey do I look fat in these jeans?"  The easy answer is a redirect.  Don't talk about your system or his but embrace the brotherhood of the hobby and invite him over to your room.