Shim,

I have to agree with Bill. The L1, however, is 750-watts RMS (1,500-watts peak) power with a single sub woofer. The Mackies are good speakers, but they're heavy, and need to be placed on poles (stands) for the larger jobs. The L1 is relatively lightweight, does not need stands, and will handle pretty much any OMB, duo, trio etc.. venue with audiences to 1,000 or less.

As for tradition, the L1, which is a vertical array system, has been around for longer than most folks realize. You're hearing them in churches, theaters, large banquet halls and lots of other places. Many, many years ago I installed vertical arrays for Executone Corporation. The vast majority of them were installed in churches and movie theaters, locations where they wanted the audiences to hear the same volume throughout the room. Executone had several systems available, many of which were custom made to fit right in with the interior decor. In churches they were in the form of a curved wooden beam that fit into each corner of the church's main hall. You had to really look closely to tell they were speaker cabinets with 8 to 12 speakers within each enclosure.

More recently, many manufacturers of traditional sound systems have jumped on the vertical array band wagon. This was evidenced at the last NAAM show. Hopefully, George Kay will jump in here and provide some more detailed information on the new systems.

One thing to keep in mind. Peavey, Mackey, Yamaha, Roland, and most others will not give you 45-days to play their system, then allow you to return it with no questions asked. Bose will! The ultimate decision is, obviously, yours, however, you may want to reconsider checking out the Bose L1. I've been using it for nearly three years and I would never go back to a conventional system.

Good Luck on whatever you decide upon,

Gary