Bose L1 Compact Review

http://www.jazzhooves.com/2011/02/bose-l1-compact-review/

Yes, they are great...you notice he/they auditioned a pair of them.

I found one Bose not very satisfactory...you need the pair to reproduce stereo pianos, effects like rotary speaker, cross delays etc.

I used a pair of the L1 Model I single bass systems for doing concerts...astonishing sound...high price...well worth it, in my opinion...you only should have to buy a PA system once.

The powered speakers (Yamaha MS60S) I use for restaurant gigs (and for home as well) are over 20 years old, and work just as good as the day I bought them...the Bose, considering their high quality, should do the same.

Arrangers are another matter.

Ian

Hi Leigh, aka sz member:(jazzhooves), many thanks for your review, especially realizing you initially inquired about the Bose L1 on this earlier thread.

From your review, I surmise you were utilizing 'two' L1 units for full stereo, not just one. Did you get a chance to test it out with your Tyros 4 going out to only 'one' L1 unit?

If so, did you detect any sound degradation (aka: stereo phase cancellation') playing Tyros 4 stereo sampled voices, such as the 'concert grand' piano?

As Ian mentioned, though two L1's together in stereo sound awesome, I too don't think a single L1 unit alone to be sound satisfactory with Yamaha keyboard 'stereo sampled' voices.

I played a Mardi Gras party Saturday night. There were about 275 people there and the two L1 compacts handled it nicely. That was about the limit though. It was a big place and I was pushing them.
DonM

Hello Guys,
Well firstly I'd like to say thank you to Bose UK for loaning the speakers to review, the guys were great!

Now, the speakers - simply put, awesome.
The sound is full, big and clear as a bell. You HAVE TO have two speakers. One sounded awful to my ears - they did say a lot of tyros 4 owners use just one, but i'd argue that one.
As a pair for £1840 they are just stunning, but expensive. They make the Tyros 4 sound completely different again. Only with the Bose do you realise how false the MS speakers sound.

Bose do one thing and one thing only - great sound, and they really are the dogs. They have offered to loan me a pair of the L1 MK II's with bass unit, but at the moment I have declined as I know what would happen - £5,500 later Id have a pair.
The compacts are good, but christ knows that the L1mkII will be just jaw droppingly amazing.

Glad you like the reviews - I am currently reviewing Sample Robot, Awave and will put a report up on the Fantom G6 also.
Lots more gear to review, including the KORG PA3X Pro which is supposedly on it's way to me.

Best wishes

Leigh
Jazzhooves.com
PS. This forum is much better, not the bitching or nasty crap that takes place on Yamaha and other forums.

"glad you like the reviews . . .the KORG PA3X Pro is supposedly on it's way to me.
PS. This forum is much better, not the bitching or nasty crap that takes place on Yamaha and other forums."

Can't wait for the PA3X review. As to the bitching, just hang around, and then ignore it!!
DonM

Hear, hear!

I totally agree...one speaker simply does not work for me either...I used the L1 Model I system in pairs (stereo) at a theatre/concert gig (on a Tyros3), and the sound was excellent...earlier in the store, I had tried one L1 Model I speaker (and sub) and it didn't sound too hot at all...again, this was using a Tyros3.

I also tried the Bose Compacts on the Tyros3 in the store (actually, in the warehouse), both singly and in stereo...again, big difference. impressive in pairs...really awful using only one.

The L1 Model II's should be, as you say, "jaw-dropping"...the L1 Model I's were pretty much that way to my ears.

Yes, much less bitching here than other forums...this place has actually improved both in the look and also in the way people are interacting, and although, once in a while, it can get a bit dicey Nigel has usually reprimands the culprit(s) early on, and things settle down quite nicely.

I'm looking forward to your PA3XPro review; I have a few on-line buddies that are very interested in Korg's next top of the line instrument.

Ian

I'm using my Pa1XPro with an L1 II with the ToneMatch unit, plus a B1 sub. We (we're a duo) also run our vocals through it. It's night and day compared with our old Peavey mixer amp and two Fender cabinets. We don't have the necessary moolah for a second Bose yet, but hey I'm a happy camper as it is right now.

And I would be too.

I played a Korg PA800 thru a single L1 and it sounded great.
I suspect the Bose 'one unit' only problem only happens with Yamaha keyboards, and specifically with Yamaha 'stereo sampled' voices. Anybody care to chime in?

Hi Scott,

Just for the heck of it, tomorrow I'm going to hook up my Roland Bass Cube 100 amp and the Bose to L and R channels respectively on the Korg just to see how the split works. I like the idea of drum fills being spread out and flying back and forth, even though a real kit wouldn't be covering a distance of, say, ten feet across the kit. Maybe pad sounds will create a nice 'wash' of sound, too.

Edited for spelling error. They drive me nuts.

I agree with Scott, 124...the Korg PA1Xpro is probably fine with mono...Yamaha's stereo samples do not collapse well to mono, in my experience.

I must say, I do appreciate playing in stereo, not just for the better reproduction of stereo samples, but also, as you mention, to have the drums move across the stereo field.

Effects based on stereo also sound better, especially chorus, delay and rotary speaker, to name a few.

With two Bose systems, the stereo sweet spot is huge.

Ian

If you needed more than the two compacts, what would you use? Do you still have the L1s? Would they do it? Single or double? If not L1, what?

My biggest job is about 300 ppl...and I have been using one L1 and a roland KC350 to augment and punch up the bottom a bit. A strange combo...but seems to work pretty well.

Eddie

I sold both the big L1s, BUT Semilive bought one of them, and I'm certain I can use it whenever I need it, since he borrowed it from me before he bought it! I have another friend that has two L1s, and HankB's wife, Linda, has Hank's Model two rig, so I am in good shape. It's great to have friends!
I think next year at this job, I will go bigger. I used the two big Lls, two years ago and they would have handled 600 people and never broke a sweat.
DonM

The live rock band I play with once used to use 2 L1 systems. However we never used the L1 subwoofers. They were too underpowered for our needs. So we always used a JBL subwoofer with the L1s to provide the bottom end we needed.

It's fairly easy to check whether your arranger collapses well to mono...

Plug into a stereo PA (or home system) using two mono channels of a stereo mixer. Play the stereo sounds with the pans set to wide apart, and listen carefully, then pan them both to 12 o'clock. Do you notice a substantial change in the timbre? Does it get 'pinched' or 'phase-y'?

If so, then there are issues.

You might also notice that reverbs, choruses, and many stereo modulation effects change sound substantially when collapsed. Not too much you can do about this, but if you regularly play on BOTH mono and stereo setups (at different venues, for instance), you might want to doublecheck your Registrations, and perhaps make a duplicate set optimized for mono, which often involves raising reverb levels, and perhaps changing to mono sounds if the internal stereo ones don't collapse gracefully...