Bose L1
Scott Dorsey wrote:
Les Cargill wrote:
It's not bad at all. Sounds quite a bit better than most all MI store
small club kit. I was expecting sort of an Acoustimass experience - not
so at all. Sounds like a modest PA, but much better than the usual
weekend warrior kit. The absence of horns and tweeters ( and I'm sure
the sophisticated active crossovers in the brain box ) made it darned
smooth.
It has some weirdness in the top couple octaves and that weirdness changes
with position. I'd call it an "overprocessed" kind of sound.
But in a bouncy acoustic field, it's not bad. Most bars are terrible
rooms; I bet Bose bet on this cutting better. They have a billion
of those internet enabled jukeboxes out there so they know the territory.
I bet also if you could get their attention, they could change some
firmware and that peak would go away. But I always err on the side of
intention with Bose.
For example, I did not understand the Acoustimass until I heard a 5.1
football game on them. It make football games sound awesome for Dad,
and Mom likes the small size. That is a business model.
You can't hear dialogue from movies on them - unless there's an
EQ profile or something to fix that.
The L1 is, above all else, a software-intensive product. The "power
base" has to be based on their jukeboxes, which seem to be very
processing intensive. I've heard familiar songs on Bose jukeboxes that
weren't even recognizable for a while.
However, I
agree strongly that this beats horn resonances hands-down for listening
pleasure. Especially the nasty "15in plus plastic exponential horn" systems
that you see in MI stores.
Quite nasty. It's kinda shocking how little thought seems to be put
into this.
With the things behind the band, you get a much more open stage sound
and I'm sure it sounds more like it does in the room when heard from the
stage. It is sound *reinforcement*, not a kill-a-watt bullhorn.
Yes, and that makes it pretty much unique in the MI store market.
Very.
Here's the thing that surprised me - it's the best "monitors" I've
heard onstage that were not full pro arena kit. And this actually
produced an improvement in performance, stage levels and coherence of
the band itself. You can *listen* again onstage instead of guessing.
Yes, this is the point of the whole thing. The bad part that comes along
with this, though, is that the gain before feedback is not anywhere near
as high as you would get with a conventional monitor or even a 1970s-style
side-fill.
Oh no, but IMO, that's not a downside for smaller rooms. No point in
dumping 10,000 watts of grindey distorted muck in a bar. Less levels is
a competitive edge - see also how it affects the guitar player. I felt
like I could set my amp levels, something I can't always do with the
classic mains/monitors arrangement. I always feel like I'm too
loud on stage.
You can make bars sound good - the ones in the Stockyard in Fort
Worth tend to be that way - but that's professional folks, not
hacks buying a bar as a retirement business. There is a bespoke system
of medium quality and a guy running it.
There's a feedback-killer or something in the L1, I'm guessing. But
lower levels ( after spending a lot on the system ) in most bars is a
very good thing.
These appear to be able to get above crowd roar in a 300-500 people
place ( with two of the systems ). I'll know more after the first
gig with 'em.
I usually detest stage monitors in clubs - I'd rather use the room
return. Yes, this includes allegedly nice monitors in clubs. which are
invariably obnoxious, even with earplugs. These, I liked - and I
don't need plugs as much with this band anymore.
I'm not sure it's really road worthy, and the price is kind of out of
line with the sort of market you might use them in. But I was
impressed. It solved a lot of problems.
Bose is very good at that. They look at the market, they see something
that people want that isn't being provided, and they sell it. They have
a bad reputation in the industry because often what they sell isn't designed
to sound good, but that's because the market niche was for something that
didn't require good sound to sell.
They don't have to outrun the bear, they just have to outrun JBL...
I'd say the L1 sound good. Not ermahgerd-great . The system, at the
Bronco Bowl sounded ehrmagerd-great.
I think it's possible to build a much better system for a small acoustic
group than the Bose...
FWIW, this is pedal steel & 6-string guitar with a good-sized ( 40W )
combo amp and the lead player with a Twin, relatively loud ( to my ear
).
This is not purely acoustic - it's yer basic honky-tonk setup.
But no drums nor bass in the PA.
but the fact that Bose is doing it and that you
can buy it at your corner MI store is important because you aren't going
to find Tannoy stuff there.
--scott
Pretty much. Although it wouldn't be that hard for E/V to build a
columnar speaker based on their ZX1. FOr MI kit, the ZX series weren't
bad at all.
--
Les Cargill
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