I thought I would post again as we have had some stick time with the L1 compact. If you read the earlier posts from Prodical Son you will see we use high quality acoustic instruments (no pick ups) with large diaphram condensor mics that we run into a small Mackie mixer pre Bose L1. We have changed up a little with our set up. We now use one stand with two condenser mics, one above for voice and another below for instruments and place ourselves in a semicircle around the stand. This is hard to do with five people, but we are still learning to work it out. When we take an instrumental break, we step in a little and the others back off with their attack. We used to use the the same mics spread apart, but we would lose each other. It is working well as we play mostly "listening" audiences as opposed to bars. What is heard by the audience is a fairly pure representation of what we are hearing. We cannot use monitors, but are close enough to each other to hear what we are doing. The Bose L1 compact does this well for small gigs. The thing we have noticed is that each place we play requires varying levels. Some places swallow the sound and we play at 2 o'clock on the volume, but other places we use 11 o'clock. Also the upright bass picks up so well that we have to find a distance that works for each venue and Joe (bass) has to be aware as he steps in and sings. We are pleased with the L1 compact and have gotten only good feedback from cofee house owners and churhes.