I bought my L1 for home use, to be able to hear myself and my kids sing and hopefully start a family band. I have been enjoying it this way since January, and I have enjoyed being a part of the Bose online community.

Recently, my guitar teacher told me that they were going to do a few gigs at a local club. They were using a Fender Passport as their PA, and were fairly happy with it. I offered to let them try my L1.

The band consists of three women and one man, with tight vocal harmonies being the centerpiece of their sound. They sounded terrific at practice while playing acoustically. There is a guitarist, percussionist, and two main singers, but the other two performers sing backup on most of the pieces, and they really understood how to blend in with each other when not miked.

The venue is a small club carved out of a large metal building with concrete floors. Very trendy decor, but very live! With the Passport, they had difficulty hearing each other. The "stage" is a 12 inch riser that is about 4 x 10 feet along the back wall, where the percussionist and guitarist sit. The two vocalists front them, and the audience is on three sides of the stage, partly up on a 3 foot riser on one side, floor level on the other. The room has 15 foot ceilings and is about 40 x 60 feet.

I had to set up the L1 in the middle of the room, to the right of and in front of the percussionist and the guitarist; I could not put it behind them or on stage with them due to the limited space. So the two instrumentalists are actually behind the primary sound field. Not ideal at all.

I had to use a small mixer to send the four mikes into Channel 1 (two Shure 87a's, a 57 beta, and an EV of some type) using the High Gain Bright preset. I found the first problem at this point; I could not convince them to sing or yell loudly into the mikes to set levels. No matter how much I explained the importance, since I had not educated them beforehand, they didn't want to yell! And I had to set five levels of gain on four channels and get it right.

It took a little time with this, and just as we all were getting frustrated, a local artist who we all know came up and said, "Oh, you've got the Bose thing! It'll sound great, don't worry". Everyone relaxed, we got the gain set, and the show started on time.

It sounded fantastic. There was not a position in the room where you could not understand every word, there were no standing waves that I could detect, and everyone was asking where the sound was coming from.

Last night they played their second gig with the L1. I set it up in 10 minutes, had left the mixer where it was the prior show and so did not have to touch it, and they really seemed to understand how to work the mikes even better. They did an encore, and people were very complimentary about their sound. More people asked about the L1, and the band has a lot of new followers.

The percussionist told me that she really enjoyed playing with the L1 and was amazed at how clear the sound was. I floored her by telling her that in her position, about 4 feet from and behind the L1, she had the worst sound in the house.

What is the revolution? I'm hoping that by loaning my L1 to local bands here in Asheville, NC, they will start buying them, and I can enjoy live music again!


(Edited for typo)

This message has been edited. Last edited by: Dr. Dad,

Great story!

quote:

...just as we all were getting frustrated, a local artist who we all know came up and said, "Oh, you've got the Bose thing! It'll sound great, don't worry". Everyone relaxed, we got the gain set,...

It's that confidence thing -- just need someone to exude the aura of "it'll work out great" to get everyone to relax and 'enjoy the ride'!

quote:

...I had to set up the L1 in the middle of the room, to the right of and in front of the percussionist and the guitarist; ...The percussionist told me that she really enjoyed playing with the L1 and was amazed at how clear the sound was. I floored her by telling her that in her position, about 4 feet from and behind the L1, she had the worst sound in the house. ...

Nah... behind is the 2nd best seat in the house! The "worst" seat is about 4 feet to the side the L1 and about 1 foot back (which, by the way, is also about the best angle to get maximum gain before feedback!)

quote:

...What is the revolution? I'm hoping that by loaning my L1 to local bands here in Asheville, NC, they will start buying them, and I can enjoy live music again!

Infiltrate. Subvert. Quietly show a 'better way' (or is that a 'better sound'?!?).

Hello Dr. Dad,

What a great report.

It really is starting to feel like a revolution to me.

We're selling a lot of L1™ systems now, and so the population of players using them is growing and growing.

At a certain point, I think some sort of critical mass is reached and the majority who still aren't sure what this is or if it's for them suddenly look at the L1 speaker as an established new standard for hearing music better, and latch on.

I don't think we're quite there yet, but I do feel closer to that time recently -- considerably so.

Some folks that read these words and perhaps don't yet know us well might think the above is some sort or a greedy corporate thing. But for us, being successful means more research and development, more products like the L1 system, more communities like this one. I must stress that Bose does not now, and has never paid one penny to a stockholder. We pour 100% of our earnings back into our work.

In the case of our group, what we're really trying to do is enable better live music. We see this as an incredible powerful and positive force in the world.

Your story gives us great confidence that in the clubs, auditoriums, places or worship, practice spaces, living rooms, street corners and VFW halls that make up the fabric of our world, musicians and their listeners are doing better than before, and in so doing are bringing more than a little extra joy into the world. This makes the work involved for all of us enormously more rewarding.

Sincerely,

Ken Jacob
Chief Engineer

Ken What does Bose think of all the mobile DJ's getting into this L1 system?

Hi Mike,

Could you tell me a little more about why you're asking the question? I want to make sure I get at the question and my simple answer "I think it's great," just doesn't seem very insightful.

Ken