I came upon the Bose L1 about two and a half years ago.    At the time I wasn’t in the market for a new sound-system, and was used to running my own sound and setting up my P.A. for band practice and shows at clubs.

Then a friend of mine pointed out the L1 in a guitar center ad.  Looking at the picture it didn’t look like any amp or speaker system I’d ever seen before.   The speakers were a couple of inches wide and stacked in a single column about 7′ high.  So, by looking at it you wouldn’t think it could be very loud, or entertain the idea of using it for a rock show.  Later on I’d find out first hand just how wrong that thought was.

Well things progressed and my band broke up as sometimes happens.   I took a break from music for a while for many reasons.   One of those reasons was that I was sick of sounding good at practice and then when the band had a show having the sound,  sound like crud, because of playing through house sound.  

It never failed.  We’d play out and the house sound would be set up very badly, usually by a “soundman,” who was either inept or simply didn’t care.

This bothered me to no end.  As an original band when you play out the performance is also a sale for your original material. You are trying to get people to like songs they have never heard before.  So, if the sound is bad or your performance is messed up because of poor sound, people just assume the band sucks.

On the rare occasions when the sound gods smiled on us and the house sound, sounded good or at least balanced, we killed.  In fact, people loved us.  

Which made it all the more frustrating when we would play out and have poor sound support ruin a show.    Every ruined show means people that won’t be coming to another show because they think that the poor sound is the sound the band puts out.

So, that is a big reason why I was thinking about quitting playing music altogether. What was the point of putting lots of work into practice and songwriting, if when you play out it just got ruined by inept sound at clubs?

As time rolled on during my break from music I decided to pick up the bass so that if I played in a band again we didn’t have to worry about getting a bass player. I already knew many drummers and my wife has always been my guitar player. But, we always seemed to have a problem keeping bass players for more that a few months.

I’ve found that singing and music is something I simply can’t quit. Sooner or later I will be playing in a band again.

After becoming decent enough on bass to play and sing at the same time I decided to put a band together again. 

By this time my practice P.A. had seen better days.  So, I was in the market again.  This time I was determined to bring my own sound to shows as well.  Even thought it would be time consuming and back breaking, what with main, monitors, back-line amps, etc….., at least I’d have control of the sound by setting it up and running it myself.

I’d did this in the past with my other P.A. with good results.   But, it is a huge pain to bring your own P.A. to show.   Doubly so because I have to carry it all and my wife’s equipment because she is a petite girl and would hurt herself carrying amps and speakers.

Luckily for me, just before I was about to buy a whole new P.A. I happened upon the advert for the Bose L1 in the musicians friend magazine.   The advert listed a website.  So, I went and checked it out. 

The website had interviews with musicians about what they didn’t like about live sound.  The things they said were dead on the same things I hated about live performance and sound.  To top it off the Bose L1 claimed to have a solution for every one of the current triple system approach problem.  Things such as:

• disconnection from the audience. The stage sound is often drastically different than the front of house sound with the usually P.A. set up.
• Not hearing the rest of the band or hearing too much of something else.  On stage you usually get different things in the monitor mix or stand by your amp to hear yourself, in which case the rest of the band usually get buried in what you hear.
• Mics not being loud enough because the stage sound is too loud and to turn them up would cause feedback
• Not hearing the singer because he is buried.
• Excessive volume both on stage and front of house.
• Not having control over your sound
• The equipment is very heavy
• The equipment is time consuming to set up.

The above is just a small list of problems caused by traditional triple systems that the Bose L1 claim to fix.

Does it?

Well, after reading the site I was convinced to try it.  I went out and got one L1 with 2 bass modules initially.   I ran my vocal, bass, and electric guitar through one. 

I had it set up in minutes and had the best sound we heard through any sound-system in years. 

The systems however are really meant to be one per player.  We found that sometimes the electric guitar would get into frequency wars with my voice and it’s sound would suffer.  So, eventually we got another for my wife’s guitar.

Now I run bass, vocals, and electric drums though my 4 bass bin system.  None of those instruments fight for frequencies clarity so it sounds great.  My wife now has her own L1.

I’m happy to say that all of the things the Bose site claims are true.

The biggest difference between the L1 and a traditional guitar amp or P.A. is that it is a  line array.   I’m not a sound engineer or a mathematician.  But, the basics of it is that since the small speakers are stacked straight and seven feet high, they act as one big speaker and throw very far in a pie shaped wedge.

The advantage of this is that you get good throw without the system being unbearably loud while you are in front of it playing.

This is not to say the systems can’t get loud.  I’ve had them loud enough to be the right level to use as amplifications as guitar in a thrash band that has a drummer who slams his drums.

This brings up a common misconception about these systems.  I’ve read on several live sound discussion forums people who think that the Bose L1 is only good for acoustic acts in quiet environments, and that they simply couldn’t be used for rock.

That is total rubbish, if an amplifier is loud enough it’s loud enough.   I’ve personally used my L1’s out many times in small and mid sized clubs for my own rock/metal band. 

We get plenty loud.  And with the L1’s we have a better sound than most of these clubs could provide for us.

Now, I’m not talking arena rock here or clubs that holds thousands of people.  That would require a lot more power.  But, the Bose site does not claim that these are capable of that.

What they claim is that it is best suited up to about 500 people.  I don’t know many rock band that play mid and small sized clubs that can pack in that many people.  So, the L1 is perfect for most club acts.

Just suppose you did have a really big show though.  The L1 has outs, they could be used as stage monitors.   Doing this would be a great benefit as you would have your normal L1 sound on stage and be able to hear yourself, and the audience would get the FOH sound from the more powerful P.A

I’d say the biggest advantage of the L1 is that as a performer you can bring your own sound, and adjust it very easily on the fly.  It has a remote that you can velcro on a mic stand.  So, if your vocal or guitar is not loud enough you simply grab the remote and turn it up.  No more trying to give directions to sound-men only to be ignored.

The second biggest advantage is that the performers hears what the audience hears.  The stage-sound is almost exactly the same mix and quality as front of house.  I say nearly the same because standing in front of the L1 is slightly louder than front of house.   And about 10′ and beyond in front of the systems, the mix and sound is actually even better.  So, what listeners hear is the same as the performer but better.

Because it is a line array system it throws the sound very far out, but not in a cone like a normal speaker, the Bose L1 throws in a very wide pie shaped wedge.  What this means is that a group using these can all hear each other and the mix that they hear on stage is the mix that goes out front.  So, if the bass or guitar is too loud on stage it is too loud out front in the mix.

I’ve found this leads to much better performances, as the band is playing the song together and hearing as a whole, instead of each player being in their own little mix where they hear their own instrument very loud and or hardly anything else.

It is literally like hearing a mixed CD and playing it at the same time.

Going from a traditional system with mains, monitors and back-line amps does take an adjustment period though.

When we used the traditional approach I found it hard to hear my vocal but in one spot of the room.  The guitar player would routinely turn up too loud and deafen me with her back-line amp, and the bass player often got buried in the mix.   And you couldn’t turn down because of the acoustic drums.

With the mix of the Bose L1 you hear everything and don’t have to blast.

The feeling of it is that you are swimming in and surrounded by your sound, whereas with the traditional approach it felt as if sound was being blasted at me from all directions, mains, monitors, back-line amps.

It took some getting used to.   At first it didn’t seem like it could be loud enough because the L1 is so easy on the ears and doesn’t really have the near field blast like a regular amp.  With a P.A. or guitar half stack if you stood a foot in front of it at performance level you would feel a near-field blast and quickly move away because it would hurt your ears. With the Bose L1 at performance level the at near field blast isn’t their and you have to turn it up unreasonably loud to get it to hurt your ears.

That’s another thing with this system. You don’t have to blast it for it to be heard, because of the way it disperses sound.  This means the performance and practice doesn’t have to be an exercise in hearing loss anymore.

Every time we play out we get compliments on our sound.  The usual one is that everything is crystal clear and can be heard.  The next one is that it sounds as perfect as a CD. The next one is that it’s loud enough without being earsplitting. The next one is that they can hear and understand the vocal easily.

In my opinion the Bose L1 sound system is the best sound system a band or act can have.  It has made performance a joy for me again.  I have yet to see any other sound system that sounds as good, is as easy to set up, or as easy and light to move.

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