The family took in a show at the Knoxville Balloon Fest this weekend. Headline act was Dishwater Blonde - a nationally tourning funk type o band. Very talented.

The stage was a very nice size - the PA was from a professional local provider. We put out our blanket just in front of and to the right of the FOH sound board. I thought the mix was pure lumpy mud. The keys, sax and bass were nearly indiscernible. The bass drum thump wacked us all in the chest pretty fiercely. The guitars (Sodano Half Stack Amp Lead - Eagnater micro stack Rythem) were noticable - but nothing to write home about. The vocals were anything but crisp.

My wife (who attends my bands Bose powered shows - but who knows absolutely nothing about sound reinforcement) made a comment about the pain in her chest from the bass thump and was generally non-impressed with the sound.

We left after an hour - ears ringing.

Thanks a bunch. I almost envied the rest of the crowd who were comfy not knowing any better. There were a lot of folks enjoying the show - I was not one of them - and it was not the fault of the players.

This message has been edited. Last edited by: SunDog,

Hi John (SunDog),

I am sorry for you and your ears. Hearing is a precious and apparently non-renewable resource. It is sad to know that people are putting themselves at risk and squandering their hearing without knowing it.

And missing out on the full possibilities of the music.

That is sad, and so true.
That is the big drawback to being an L1 convert...it's hard to enjoy music through a typical sound system anymore.

I perform as one half of an acoustic duo "Acoustic Twist" and utilize one Bose Original L1 system and 2 B1's + Tonematch.

My brother (the other half of the duo) plays a stand-up cocktail drum kit. So far, we mic the bass drum only. I play acoustic-electric guitar with a Roland GR-20 synth and sing through a Digitech vocalist.

Recently, we opened up an evening of entertainment in a gymnasium on a stage with just our Bose set-up. The rain forced the bands inside. I crutched/lifted the Bose amplifier-mixer base up in the back because of the raised stage scenario, so it would point downward. We performed for two hours.

We were followed by a 6-piece band (really fine musicians) that had PA equipment galore. Ironically, our song selection and genres were very similar.

There were lots of musicians at the event. We were told repeatly that our sound was better dispersed and that the song lyrics were much more audible than the 6-piece band.

The funny thing is that most of the audience (appr 250 people), not counting the other musicians, thought that our sound was coming from the same PA and could not understand why we sounded different and better.