Product: Bose L1 Compact
Price Paid: 9994991
Submitted
10/06/2009
at
04:59pm
by
che michael
General Questions
:
No Opinion
This unit is a hybrid (mix of monitor and front of house). It is an inline array of six small speakers at the top of the column and one bass speaker at the base. The six small speakers face different directions to get an even dispersion of sound.
It looks almost ridiculous- I laughed when I first saw it but as soon as I plugged it in it blew me away. This unit will bewilder your audience. There is lots of information about configuration on the Bose site but essentially it is behind the musician so they can hear what the audience hears. Very little feedback issues (and if so very easy to resolve).
By itself you have an input for one instrument and a mic. I found this to be quite restrictive (no effects such as reverb) and have bought the Bose T1 which gives me all the options I need, and more. The T1 allows 4/5 channels input and is more than just a mixing desk. You could just as easily have a standard mixing desk and that would work well if you need multiple inputs.
Technical Specs
:
10
The only thing you need to know is this thing weighs ~12.5 kg!
It has a 1/4" instrument input and an XLR for the mic. You can plug in an mp3 player as well. It has a line out (RCA and 1/4").
It has a built in amp. Literally just plug and play. Perfect for what is was designed for.
Not sure of the wattage.
Sound Quality
:
10
Its a Bose. Whatever gets plugged in is replicated with amazing accuracy. Crystal clear- its shows up poor quality mp3 tracks, for example.
Another thing that amazes not only me is that no matter where you are in the room the sound is very homogenous, no hot spots right in front. And from something that size and weight- quite incredible.
Features
:
8
This is the most portable PA system you will find. Lightweight and compact (as the name suggests). I bought it instead of a pair of RCF 312's, primarily because it was so portable. It might not be as powerful as the RCF's but for 95% of what I want it is well loud enough. Also weighs less than just one RCF speaker!
As mentioned, the dispersion and quality of sound is really something to hear.
It really is designed to be one unit per musician.
The down point is that realistically you would need to buy the T1 or use a good mixing desk with effects to get the best sound. The T1 is jam packed with features and is in my opinion great value. Without it you will have a hard time EQ'ing your guitar and the vocals will come out too dry.
Overall Rating
:
8
I can highly recommend this to working musicians. I play in relatively small bars <100 people and it works perfectly. If I needed it to be louder I suppose I could plug into the house speakers using the line out. So far I have not needed to.
As I say, it really is one unit per musician if you want the best performance. I did try the L1 Model 2 and that has a lot more grunt in terms of power and the capacity to deal with entire bands. The L1 model 2 is nowhere near as portable as the compact. It was more than I needed.
The portability is a massive positive and for me the selling point.
I play an acoustic guitar and sing. With the T1 I can add another guitarist and vocalist no problem and the sound is fantastic.
The T1 is great- it has effects (not just reverb- Chorus, flanger/phaser, delay and many variations of each) for each channel as well as compressors, inbuilt tuner, EQ's - again, for each channel. I especially like the ToneMatch presets. A very well thought out little black box. The fact that you have to buy that in addition is why it loses points.
If it were stolen I would be upset but go straight to the shop to buy another. Bose is expensive but I think you get what you pay for. In this case it just doesn't look like much.
