Greetings, I've got a couple Bose L1 systems and love them...however, lately I'm having a problem with one of them and am wondering about possible causes. I'll be doing some testing but any insight from Bose would be helpful.

Lately, one of my Bose L1 systems (L1 Model 1, with 1 Bass Cabinet) has been cutting out on me. To keep it from cutting out, I have to keep the volume level relatively low. I use the L1 to DJ small parties, and I use a powered subwoofer in addition to the L1, which is the reason for the single b1 configuration.

My setup is as follows. 2 turntables into a Rane TTM57 mixer. I use 1/4" cables to go into my powered sub, and XLR cables to go into my Bose L1. No red lights anywhere...I'm not clipping on the mixer, not clipping on the L1's remote, and not clipping on the base of the L1 itself, and yet the audio still cuts out...I have to keep lowering the volume until I find a point where the audio stops cutting out. When I say cutting out, I mean it'll cut off for half a second...usually on loud portions of a song like when a kick drum hits.

Also, any time I try to use a microphone, either through the mixer or directly into the 1/4" input of the bose, it cuts out, unless I talk very softly, which means I absolutely can't talk over any music playing.

Is the amp that's built into the L1's base becoming faulty and going into some sort of protection mode? Are some speakers in the tower blown?

I know the base bin isn't the problem as I've used it with one of my other L1's without issue since I started having this issue. I haven't tried swapping the tower speakers with the base of the l1 yet because I can't do such testing at home because it'd be way too loud and disturb the neighbors, however I'm scared to try it at a gig.

One more thing to note...when the audio cuts off, I'm still getting a green signal light on the base of the bose, indicating that the audio is indeed getting to the l1.

Ok, I decided to say screw the neighbors and test this thing out.

Looks like it's the top half of one of my pairs of tower speakers.

I tested the system at the same volume level with the following configurations (all with the questionably working bose l1 base:

Just the bottom half of the tower from the questionable set (works)

Just the bottom half of the tower from the known working set (works)

Both the bottom and top of the questionable set (audio cuts out)

The bottom half of the questionable set and the top half of the known working set (works)

So it seems to me that there's something wrong with the top half of my speaker tower.

Could this be a blown speaker? Bad wiring? I assume I'll have to send it in somewhere...it's a couple years old so probably out of warranty.

Dear DJ Michael Basic,

Thank you for the question, this certainly is a strange case. Thank you for doing all of the troubleshooting for us. It certainly seems like the upper cylinder on the one system that cuts out appears to be defective. The good news is that the cylinders have a five year warranty, and we can certainly take care of this for you in a timely manner. We just ask that you give us a call at 877-335-2673, Monday through Friday 8:30am est to 9:00pm or Saturday between 9:00am and 5:00pm, so that we can get you set up with a service option.

Thank you, and have a great day!

-Eric-at-Bose