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Bose L1..Again! Bigger Venue...NG

Already In Use

Already In Use

Jan 3, 2010
713
4
#1
Final answer. The Bose L1 2 with bass module will not begin to cover a room with roughly 200 people in it. Had questions a while back. Discovered the band leader placed the thing in the wrong place. Had it placed dead center, stage front 1/3...no cigar. Had my own bass rig...thank goodness. The Bose thing was so effing loud behind us loaded with harsh mids and blistering highs that I used ear plugs designed for the shooting range to survive.

The Bose is a great rig for small, quiet, coffee house, library corner type shows(talking one unit here, not multiples).

Got a Peavey 400 watt mixer with 2 15 inch 2 way mains...which was about 700 bucks that will bury the Bose thingy alive..

Rant over...just got in from a Relay For Life event. Our trio did not deliver..Frustrated...We had 75 year old women coming up telling us they could not hear us well.

Carry on...Peace!:bassist:

IMO opinion...get a BIGGER PA for bigger rooms. Over and Out!
 
#2
Already In Use said:
Final answer. The Bose L1 2 with bass module will not begin to cover a room with roughly 200 people in it. Had questions a while back. Discovered the band leader placed the thing in the wrong place. Had it placed dead center, stage front 1/3...no cigar. Had my own bass rig...thank goodness. The Bose thing was so effing loud behind us loaded with harsh mids and blistering highs that I used ear plugs designed for the shooting range to survive.

The Bose is a great rig for small, quiet, coffee house, library corner type shows(talking one unit here, not multiples).

Got a Peavey 400 watt mixer with 2 15 inch 2 way mains...which was about 700 bucks that will bury the Bose thingy alive..

Rant over...just got in from a Relay For Life event. Our trio did not deliver..Frustrated...We had 75 year old women coming up telling us they could not hear us well.

Carry on...Peace!:bassist:

IMO opinion...get a BIGGER PA for bigger rooms. Over and Out!
Click to expand...
We have one and I agree. We have used it for mains in a coffee house gig and it's great for that. We have used it for monitors at larger gigs, and it works fine for that, too. Best of all is the way if works in our practice space/ jam room.
 
#4
I used to run an electronics warehouse and we had a saying. All highs, no lows, gotta be Bose. If you want small speakers they are great, if you want great speakers they aren't.

I assure you, this was not exclusive to my store as I have heard other TBers say it.
 
#5
ggunn said:
We have one and I agree. We have used it for mains in a coffee house gig and it's great for that. We have used it for monitors at larger gigs, and it works fine for that, too. Best of all is the way if works in our practice space/ jam room.
Click to expand...

To me it doesn't even work for practicing. I bought a JamHub for my band and made everyone wear headphones because I could not stand the L1 in our practice anymore. Feedback was completely uncontrollable, therefore you had to operate in lower volumes and I could not hear myself singing. By the way, all we had in the L1 was vocals and keys.

Don't get me wrong, I spent a lot of money on Bose stuff, but when it comes to band situations, they have yet to design a solution.
 
#7
I think this thread in some ways reflects the fact that people expect more volume than is necessary.

I don't know about for outdoors. I have never seen a Bose PA for an outdoor gig.

But indoors, I frequently hang out with several bands using a Bose PA in different rooms - and it is always fine. Actually, perfect.
Yup - they are playing at a lower volume than many.
And that's one of the reasons why it's so good.
 
#8
This room we played before. this was our 2nd time there. Read the books...watched the tutorials. The room had maybe 20 tables plus rear seating...chairs lined up..buffet style food. It wasnt a concert where folks sat and listened. We were the music for one hour out of several for an event...folks were mingling, talking etc..est @ 200 people...Folks from the audience were coming up the the stage telling us they couldnt hear the band very well.


Out trio's style is soft music to sooth the soul...low volumes over dinner and drinks...sloooow dancing etc.

I love headphones for practice BTW...few posts above! Peace!
 
#9
I am a firm believer in appropriate volume levels for a club, far too may bands play far too loud and they are strangling the market for live music. People want to go to work on Monday with their hearing somewhat intact, they live in the real world.

But a PA should be able to give you the option to play outdoors and in bigger spaces, I wouldn't necessarily consider a lack of power and volume a 'feature.'

Bose is led by their marketing department, their engineering department just fills the orders. Shame because I really like the idea behind this PA, if only they put in an effort to do it right...
 
#11
macribas said:
To me it doesn't even work for practicing. I bought a JamHub for my band and made everyone wear headphones because I could not stand the L1 in our practice anymore. Feedback was completely uncontrollable, therefore you had to operate in lower volumes and I could not hear myself singing. By the way, all we had in the L1 was vocals and keys.
Click to expand...
That is not at all my experience. Maybe it's because we don't play all that loud, but on Jam Nights we have up to 7 vocal mics, keys, and up to three acoustic guitars in our Bose stick and it works great. Even the mics very close to it don't feed back, even when they are pointed at it. It's plenty loud; it stands near a corner of the space and everyone can hear everything. Well, everyone but the drummer, but we run a separate monitor for him.
 
#12
All I know is - the world would be a much better place if more
live acts knew how to conjure a lower volume mix that works for the stage and the room.

Excessive volume is the cancer of live music. Most people out spending their money - don't want the volume the band is putting forth.

It starts with the drummer. And I'm allowed to throw the stone because I am a drummer. More drummers need to learn low volume technique. Too many bashers think they can only do what they do by bashing. It's nonsense. If they could lower it, that makes it possible for the rest of the band to lower it. Leading to the band epiphany - that hearing each other at a lower volume is Very Enjoyable and leads to the Best Music out of each player.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. [sound of angels singing] :cool:
 
#13
SBassman said:
All I know is - the world would be a much better place if more
live acts knew how to conjure a lower volume mix that works for the stage and the room.

Excessive volume is the cancer of live music. Most people out spending their money - don't want the volume the band is putting forth.

It starts with the drummer. And I'm allowed to throw the stone because I am a drummer. More drummers need to learn low volume technique. Too many bashers think they can only do what they do by bashing. It's nonsense. If they could lower it, that makes it possible for the rest of the band to lower it. Leading to the band epiphany - that hearing each other at a lower volume is Very Enjoyable and leads to the Best Music out of each player.

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh. [sound of angels singing] :cool:
Click to expand...


I'm with ya! I am in a jazz and blues band also..6 to 8 pieces. with a very cool drummer. That band sounds killer out in the venue and on stage..we use a real PA...monitors..the works.

to me the idea of the Bose unit is akin to piloting a plane by sitting outside on the nose of the plane. I cannot grasp the idea of having what are supposed to be FOH mains sitting right behind the band.
 
#14
Already In Use said:
I'm with ya! I am in a jazz and blues band also..6 to 8 pieces. with a very cool drummer. That band sounds killer out in the venue and on stage..we use a real PA...monitors..the works.

to me the idea of the Bose unit is akin to piloting a plane by sitting outside on the nose of the plane. I cannot grasp the idea of having what are supposed to be FOH mains sitting right behind the band.
Click to expand...
Like anything else, it's a matter of having the right tool for the job. The Flatlanders (Joe Ely, Jimmie Dale Gimore, and Butch Hancock) gigged with three of them when they played shows with just the three guys with acoustic guitars. Each stick was running just a mic and an acoustic guitar. It worked really well for them. A single stick for a full band PA? Not so great.
 
#15
Bose now publishes measurements and polar data.
You can reference it and your other speakers and notice frequency response, polar dispersion, SPL, ...
In the hands of a sound engineer this data is useful and can be used to select the right system for the right venue.

It took Bose ages to release any measurements. They were stubborn about it. And now that they did, no the measurements show they are not a single solution system for every venue. But they do really well when used under conditions they are designed for. Also, you can add your own sub, and actually get a lot more out of them.
 
#16
seamonkey said:
Bose now publishes measurements and polar data.
You can reference it and your other speakers and notice frequency response, polar dispersion, SPL, ...
In the hands of a sound engineer this data is useful and can be used to select the right system for the right venue.
Click to expand...
Those data (frequency response and polar SPL charts) were in the manual when we bought our stick about seven years ago.
 
#17
L1's are crap where there's a big crowd and a low ceiling. They do get impressive volume on stage without feedback, but they do not throw the the back of crowded rooms worth a damn. Unless you have a proper PA handy when the room fills up, you're screwed when can least afford it.
 
#18
The band I am in uses two L1 3 B1 subs we have worked out the kinks with the bose system and all we get are compliments. I use a Bass driver and compression pedal I go direct into channel 3, the bass driver helps with the low end the rest of the band also goes direct to the bose L1's no stage amps the vocals are coming out of both L1's to give a stereo effect through a 16 channel mixing board the lead guitarist also has the same stereo feed so when he plays his leads he is in both towers and switch back to one after the lead is done Our average crowd is 200-300 people and have no problem getting the music to the crowd it took us a while to get it right but since we invested the money we did what we need to make it work for us. We are a far cry from a coffee house band 5 member Classic Rock
I have heard many horror stories about Bose I am not pushing it on anyone but it works great for us

outside private party
 

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