Hi Diki,
Well, let me start off by saying I am NOT the kind of person who has to have all the latest and greatest gear or a stage full of gear to make an impression. All I am after is the best sound I can get with the least amount of effort on my part.

Probably all the things you are saying are true - yes the T3 EQ can do just about anything a mixer would do and yes the T3 gain settings allow a lot of variance. Unfortunately, Yamaha built the T3 for home use or studio work and not live performance. It is very complicated(at least for me) to make these adjustments live. Frankly, if the sounds weren't so awesome and if the preset styles weren't as well suited for my music as they are I would probably look at other options from Rowland or Korg. The mixer allows me to make small "tweaks" on the fly and effortlessly.

As for the Bose Compact L1s, unlike the standard Bose L1s, they have no EQ or Gain adjusments or builtin presets that you can use - none. So without the very expensive Tonematch unit from Bose you only have the builtin sound and levels if that makes any sense.

Why there is a difference in stereo effect I have no idea - but there sure is when using the mixer. One other thing - I really pushed up the gain on the mixer just to see if I could "overdrive" the Compacts and the little speakers just kept on keeping on with no discernable distortion. The sound level was enough to shake the windows.

If I ever get all this figured out I will let you know - meanwhile I will just keep enjoying my new setup and hope the audiences do too.

Hammer