The first time I heard a Bose L1 was about three years ago, when I did a PSR-3000 clinic with a local client, who I'll call Donald.

He sings, plays guitar, and makes his own SMF which he uses for background accompaniment.

We were in a small hall, where he plays quite often, and I was immediately impressed with the Bose L1's sound coverage, but less than enamoured with the thin sound of the 3K's accompaniment.

I was using a 3K at that time and was used to hearing it in stereo, through two powered monitors, which I still have, and I was struck by the difference, both when I walked around the room, and when I sat and played chords...the L1 was off to my right, and a bit behind me.

I did notice the piano was thinner when I played it on it's own, and it sounded thinner in the accompaniment when it was part of a style....some of the guitars were the same way...overall it was acceptable, but it was far from good enough to my ears to make me go out and buy one, even though I wanted a system that could fill a room the way the Bose did..

Mind you, Donald was very pleased with the Bose, and liked it more than the PA he had the year before, which was also a mono system...two cabinets, and a powered mixer...he mainly liked how well the Bose filled the room, but he did not comment that the 3K sounded better.

Seeing he was quite happy with the Bose, I said nothing.

Last week he and his wife were at one of my gigs,( I was playing all instrumental music) and heard the S900 through two L1's in stereo...needless to say, both of them were more than impressed with the sound, and, after my gig, we plugged in a Flashdrive which he still had in his jacket pocket from the night before, and I played several of his SMF whilst he walked around the room.

The bottom line is that he bought another L1...so I guess it takes hearing one (or two in this case) to actually change someones view.

I use the same keyboard pan/effects settings with the two Bose that I use with the two powered speakers I had been using (and still use occasionally)...I don't "hard pan" anything, but the sounds are panned, especially if there are two guitars in the accompaniment...one is panned at 10 o'clock and the other at 2...I also sometimes pan the phrase tracks if I'm using similar sounds in both, and they are set to the same 10 and 2 positions.

To me, and to Donald as well, the sound of the two Bose is far more open, the stereo separation is present nearly everywhere...in other words, the stereo "sweet spot" is substantially increased.

He said that even his vocals sounded better, especially when he panned the vocal harmonizer tracks.

I have had quite a few people from the audience comment on how great the two Bose sound., and no complaints about it sounding too loud, something I had to be concerned about using conventional speakers.

Just as it is hard (more like impossible) to describe to someone who has not heard the Bose, just how well it fills a room, it is equally as difficult to convey to someone how good two sound in stereo.

My suggestion is thus...if you're happy with the way your single Bose sounds, don't ever listen to it in stereo.

Ian



[This message has been edited by ianmcnll (edited 05-14-2009).]