Over the past half-century, I, like many other performers have owned a lot of sound systems. All of them were good to excellent systems and I never owned one that I did not like. Each time I made a change, which has pretty much been every couple years since 1958, the change was made for a specific reason.

Most of the time the upgrade was in wattage, which many of have done in hopes of not only improving our ability to play larger venues, but additionally, we hoped to improve sound quality by using high-wattage sound systems that were not stressed to their maximum. I always figured there was no such thing as too much wattage, and for smaller jobs you can always turn the volume down while still maintaining the best sound quality.

Consequently, I ran the sound system gauntlet, beginning with a 100-watt, el-cheapo guitar amp and small mixer up to 1,500-watt stereo systems that damned near required a fork-lift to get the equipment out of the van(s). THEY ALL SOUNDED GOOD!

I tried every brand I could find in the mid-Atlantic region and I traveled hundreds of miles to hear other well-known performers and take a close look at their sound systems. I also carefully noted their setups, speaker sizes, venue layouts, audience compositions, anything and everything that would possibly make my performances not only sound better, but additionally, make my performances sound better than anyone else. Granted, there were lots of outstanding performers out there, and many of them were extremely talented and would have sounded fantastic using almost any quality sound system.

My first large, conventional sound system was a Peavey, 600-watt stereo, powered mixer , which fired into a pair of Peavey SP5G speakers. Putting these babies up on poles was a real challenge, and more often than not there was no one around to help--even when I played with a 5-piece country band. It sounded good, but the falloff, even when on poles, was awful. In order to reach the back end of a large hall you had to blow the heads off the folks sitting within 25 feet of the stage.

From there the power went up to a larger Peavey system, monster SP1 speakers that tipped the scales at more than 100 pounds each. We had four of them, and they never went on poles because they were just too heavy and it would have been dangerous. Speakers were stacked on top of these, and there were some big NYE jobs with the band where we had them stacked three high, plus we all had powered Peavey monitors. Setup time was insane on the larger jobs, often taking nearly two hours.

I traveled to NJ and listened to DNJ, who at the time was performing in a relatively large hall with a pair of Barbetta Sona 32C powered speakers. They really sounded good, the falloff was not nearly as bad as the Peavey systems, and because they were bi-amped the clarity was better than the Peaveys. This prompted me to sell the Peavey systems I had, which were stacked up like cordwood at the time. They were all sold locally, and the guys that purchased them are still using them in small niteclub and restaurant jobs.

The Barbettas were used for a couple years and they did an excellent job. I also listened to a guy using a pair of Mackies down in Virginia, but they didn't, IMO, sound as good as the Barbettas.

When Logitech came out with their Z-2200 I purchased the system for use with my PC in the office. One day I connected it to my Yamaha PSR-2000 and was amazed at all the sounds I was hearing that were not heard with the Barbetta Sona 32Cs. The truly amazing thing, though, was the clarity. No muddy sounds at all, even with just this small, 2.1 sound system. When the Z-5500 5.1 surround-sound system became available, I immediately purchased one, modified it so it could be used on smaller NH jobs, and it performed flawlessly.

A few months later Uncle Dave purchased the Bose L1 and raved about not only the features, but additionally how quickly he was able to set up his equipment in a very small space. I had heard Dave perform on a few occasions prior to his Bose purchase, talked with him on the phone about the system, then made the 3-hour drive to where he was performing, which was an Italian restaurant/bar combination where acoustics and venue layout were awful.

Dave was performing at ground level, the front of his keyboard was only 4-feet from the back of the nearest bar stool, the L1 was about 4 feet to his left and about 2-feet aft of the keyboard. The sound was uniform throughout the 3-room venue, the clarity was beyond description, the volume was such that everyone in the restaurant could hold a conversation without having to raise their voice, and the guy sitting directly in front of the L1 was whispering sweet-nothings into the ear of the barmaid.

I ordered the L1 directly from Bose the next day, sold the Barbetta Sonas to a good friend who uses and loves them, sold all the remaining sound systems for a fraction of what I paid for them, and the rest is history.

When I'm at home, playing my PSR-3000 in the office I love the stereo sound that comes from both the keyboard speakers, and from the Z-5500 system that I still keep for a backup. When I'm performing, however, I want to hear everything the audience hears and the L1 provides me with the ability to do this. I hear what the folks in the back of the venue hear, what the people sitting 20 feet to my right hear, what everyone hears. For me, at this stage of the game, it does what I want it to do. The audience size, venue size and room configuration are no longer a problem.

Some folks feel they perform best with a conventional sound system. And, this may be the case for THEM! If YOU MUST have stereo, then the L1 is not for you. If you feel the necessity to blow the walls down by cranking up the volume to deafening levels, the L1 is probably not for you either. However, if you're looking for crystal-clear, high-quality sounds that fill a room with very little falloff, the L1 may be what you are looking for.

And, as I have stated many, many times in the past, this is one of the few sound systems you can try for up to 45 days without risking a dime. Bose sound quality is unsurpassed, their service department is the best, failure rates are almost unheard of, and for ME, unless something really incredible shows up in the world of conventional sound systems, the L1 will be MY choice for a long time to come.

Sorry to write a damned book about MY sound system experiences,

Gary