JBL IRX One column speaker near price of Peavy LN 1063 and Mackie SRM Flex

[ElmerJFudd]

https://jblpro.com/en-US/products/irx-one
 

$949

Better than the other sub $1k column PAs?  
 

 

[Baldwin Funster]

Just a personal bias but JBL has been a disappointment to me since being acquired by Harman and I avoid on principle.  That said I use a a pair of eon 610s  but I'd rather have EVs or QSC. If you need warranty work jbl is a nightmare.  

[Adam Burgess]

Tagged along with a sax and tracks playing friend of mine to a small corporate ballroom gig last night. First time I'd heard the RCF E-Vox 12 in the wild. Sounded lovely - and impressive for the size and weight. She had her own Bose L1 set up in the lobby for the first set, and that I also like.

Heard the Mackie column thing once and it was not the nicest thing in the world.

Got a couple of JBL PRX4xx speakers that come out on occasion, and they just keep working here in the Middle East's humidity and heat and salty aired beach gigs. Harman quite ubiquitous around here for pub level stuff and service is actually among the better companies. Yamaha being another notable one.

[Tusker]

2 hours ago, Adam Burgess said:

Tagged along with a sax and tracks playing friend of mine to a small corporate ballroom gig last night. First time I'd heard the RCF E-Vox 12 in the wild. Sounded lovely - and impressive for the size and weight. She had her own Bose L1 set up in the lobby for the first set, and that I also like.

 

That's a very interesting experience and comparison Adam. Wanted to get a sense of your non-scientific but seasoned intuition.

 

You mentioned sax and tracks. Do you think that for a full mix the RCF and L1 would be appropriate for different room sizes? At what point would you personally want to bring out big boxes instead of columns?

[Adam Burgess]

We've used the Bose L1 in a few duo gigs before, so live keys, sax, 2x vocals, and tracks. XR18 or X32 before it. So handy to have that to get a nice handle on the dynamics. Sometimes the sax is only miked to slap some reverb and delay on it and is fine acoustically, but the little Bose 

With two bass modules, I'd say it's good for 100 pax more than comfortably, in those restaurant/terrace/corp. dinner type things, at least.
Couldn't do a rock band in a crowded bar without red-lining, but it's 'full sounding' which is sometimes more important than VOLUME!

The RCF E-Vox sounded beefy enough to me the other night (compressed music, not live musicians, of course). The company played their "we're the best" corporate video early in the night and it was LOUD. Impressively so. And they had 2x sets compared to the Bose in the other room. 

Whether the tops could cope with live 'spiky' drums and bass clicks and pops… I'm not sure. But, I wouldn't hesitate to try it, or discount the system at all. (Like I would with the Mackie  )The RCFs subs are quite a bit bigger than the Bose, and I'm sure they'd keep up quite easily. At a guess - I'd go for 200 pax in a 'busy' background noisy type room!

Having used RCF TT+ stuff in the past in a LOUD ROCK BAND, I'm sure the protection is very good, if the tech has trickled down to the different ranges - but the musos have to be sensible if it redlines or they can hear and limiting or distortion… 

Not scientific in the slightest - but I guess the DSPs in these things are so good these days, when tailored to known speaker drivers and amps, they can be really impressive.

In the same way the now quite old and tiny NEXO PS8 sounded with a huge 3600W heavy iron Crown amp and the external DSP rack(!) One of the nicest monitors I'd ever used for piano. 

[Delaware Dave]

Our former singer has an acoustic act and uses the Bose line speakers.  Out front (10 yards away) they sound very clear, on stage they sound absolutely awful.  I like the concept but my experience is that these type speakers need correct positioning.  My EV speaker is a quick setup and sounds good on stage and FOH as well without having to tweak the positioning, and half the price.

[AnotherScott]

4 hours ago, Adam Burgess said:

We've used the Bose L1 in a few duo gigs before

 

2 hours ago, Delaware Dave said:

Our former singer has an acoustic act and uses the Bose line speakers.

 

Although the thread started with talk of sub-$1k columns (which Bose does not make), now that it's shifted to Bose, it's worth noting that they have made lots of column models. I wouldn't judge one by an experience with another.

 

In the L1 series,  there has been the original L1 ("classic"), L1 Model 1, L1 model II, L1 Compact, L1 1S, and current L1 Pro 8/16/32. The L1 Pro 8 (which I have) seems to have been a direct and significantly improved replacement for the L1 Compact.

 

Anyway, my point is, if someone say the L1 is great, or the L1 is awful, it's really hard to put that into any context if you don't say which L1 you have experience with.

 

But as long as I'm here... in current models at least, what Bose has over (AFAIK) all the others is its extremely wide (180 degree) dispersion. That means that, if it's a gig where I don't need a ton of volume, I can bring that single L1 Pro 8 and get all the coverage I need, no need to bring a pair. There's even enough slightly-off-axis volume that the singers don't need monitors (at least if they're "up front" -- a singing drummer in the back may still want something... though we haven't tried putting the speaker behind all of us, which apparently can be another way to go, but I think that would be for even lower volume, since at some point, feedback will become an issue... this system seems less prone to it, but it doesn't eliminate the possibility entirely). So for a "light" gig, the entire PA and monitor speaker system can be the one column speaker. Fast to carry in and set up (and break down), minimal wiring, minimal schleppage, compared to a pair of anything (usually with stands, besides) plus monitors. And the fact that you may buy one instead of two can make the "pricey" Bose a more cost-effective option than a cheaper model.

 

So to bring this full circle, the L1 Pro 8 can arguably sometimes compete with the sub-$1k arrays, if you're in a situation where you could get by with one of them, when you'd be more likely to be looking at two of one of the others!

[Adam Burgess]

@AnotherScott Yes, Scott. Agree with all the above. I believe this Bose is the L1S version I've used.

It was going out of production at the time, so I don't think it was much more than $1000 US. Extra sub module was, well, extra. But worth it, I reckon!

[ElmerJFudd]

We’ve heard from at least one user who struggled to get one of the L1 models sounding as desired.  Which L1 I am not certain.   It was possibly due to locale - stone floor in hotel-like environment.  How much control does the recommended or current L1 give you to EQ and ditch/include fx?