Bose L1 users.

[ewall08530]

Do any of our Forumites have experience with the Bose L1 Compact or the newer Bose L1 Pro 8?

[FatFingers]

I have the L1 compacts but so far have only used them to saturate my house. Haven"t gigged with them.

[ABECK]

I have an L1 Compact. I mainly use it as a personal monitor when playing with a front of house system. It's great for that application. Often I won't even setup the extension poles - I just have it on the floor tilted up.

[montunoman]

I used a pair of Bose Compacts for several years as a PA system for OMB and small group gigs. They worked great but I started doing jobs that I felt needed the power of standard 12' speakers and 18' subs.

I do have a pair of the Bose SA1 Pro for small jobs which work great too. I heard the newer Bose L1 Pro 8 are fantastic, so hopefully you can check those out and let us know what you think.

[ImproKeys]

I'm using ONE L1 Compact for small to medium gigs, often as the main PA. Mostly for Trio / Quartet (Piano, Vocals, Percussion). You should find a piano sound that sounds good in mono (i.e. Nord White Grand).

Sometimes I even run bass through it. But it is really more concert-like situations, no dancing or talking while we play.

[Delaware Dave]

When our band does acoustic we use the L1. On stage it sounds very muddy but in the back of the room it sounds clear. We just did acoustic shows the past two weekends. When I was on the stage it sounded muffled, when I walked to the back of the room it was very clear. Don't fully understand why this is.

[AnotherScott]

I see most if not all of the comments here have been about the L1 Compact, but no one's specifically mentioned the L1 Pro 8 you asked about. I just picked up the Pro 8, and I'm impressed. I got it primarily to try using in place of a pair of Roland SA300, which I've used for keys+PA on smaller gigs. And it did the trick. The Bose sounds better, goes louder, travels lighter (the pair of SA300s is 4 pieces of 25 lbs each).

 

There are trade-offs... the Roland is stereo (even when using just one), and has more inputs, The Bose is pricier than the SA300 was, though it's still cheaper than two SA300, and I think it does provide equivalent coverage (albeit in mono). I also picked up a little Mackie Mix12FX to use with the Bose since I usually do need those extra inputs. The Mackie is small enough to sit on the bass unit. 

 

I even got adventurous and used the single Pro 8 on a couple of electric gigs, where I'd usually have used a pair of EV ZXa1 mains and one or two Behringer B208D vocal monitors, but I wanted a fast and easy setup. At least if it's a small-ish area you need to cover, it actually works. I was concerned because of the much lower SPL spec, but for the space, it was okay. And maybe it balances out somewhat because of the long throw distance associated with the Bose design. (Also see the thread at https://forums.musicplayer.com/topic/182635-speaker-throw-question/ .) And I was even putting my keys through it, which I don't usually do, even when we have the EVs.  Okay, it would have been better if I put my keys through their own amp(s) as I usually do (and when I'm playing LH bass, it usually goes to its own small bass amp). But it was a small casual quickie gig (in high heat, besides!), and as I said, it was a small area, so I was looking for the fastest, easiest load-in and setup... and it did the job. And one Pro 8 sure sets up faster than a pair of ZXa1, a pair of tripods, a pair of vocal monitors, and all the AC and signal wiring the four speakers require.

 

Here are a couple of clips from the gig. Everything except the electric guitar and drums is coming out of the one Bose L1 Pro 8, located at the opposite side of the "stage" from the camera, at the far side of the keyboards, just beyond the frame, aimed out basically toward the audience we're playing to, though angled in somewhat, to facilitate that it's also the band's monitors. (Recorded with an old iPad's built-in mic, probably diminishing bass and compressing dynamics.)