The Bose L1 Compact is an extremely portable, yet highly flexible PA system. The Bose L1 Compact also delivers crisp, clean, accurate Bose sound. I purchased two L1 Compacts last year and have been extremely pleased with my purchase. I've been an amateur musician for nearly twenty-five years and have had tons of experience with numerous PA systems. I've owned at least five separate systems over the years including equipment from EAW, Tascam, Mackie, Hafler, Electrovoice and JBL. I must say that the Bose L1 Compact is my favorite PA system of any of the systems that I've ever owned.
In my teens and early twenties I played in several different rock n' roll bands and always owned my own PA system for use with the bands that I played with. I was (and still am for that matter) the lead singer in each band and found that the PA system was very important to my performance. Most of the systems that I owned during these years were extremely powerful and had to be so to amplify my vocals over the drums and blaring guitars. In my mid to late twenties I began to play mostly acoustic music (just myself on guitar with my vocal). I also began dabbling in karaoke and DJ gigs to help make ends meet. This continued into my thirties and I found myself playing music with my twelve year-old daughter last year. The system I'd used for the six years prior was a somewhat compact system made up of Electrovoice mains and subs, a rack full of equipment including and Tascam digital board, Hafler power amp, a DBX Driverack PA, rack mounted computer, and various effects. While being somewhat compact, this system was still bulky enough to fill my small SUV to the brim and test my back each time I moved the system for performances. It was time for a change. It had come to the point that I would actually dread performances, karaoke shows and the like, because I just flat out didn't want to move my equipment. I began to look for more compact PA systems and stumbled across the Bose L1 Compact. After careful review of numerous systems I devised a plan to sell my current PA system and purchase the most compact system I could possibly assemble. The system consists of two Bose L1 Compacts, an Alesis Multimix USB 2.0, 8 channel mixing board, microphones and a laptop (for digital music, karaoke, recording,etc...). This system sets up in a flash, is extremely lightweight, and most importantly sounds wonderful!
The biggest factors in my selection of the Bose L1 Compact were it's size, flexibility and sound. I use this system for live acoustic performances, karaoke, monitoring during video recording, and dj use. The Bose L1 Compact weighs less than thirty pounds and can be carried in one trip (two Bose L1 Compacts require two trips). As far as flexibility is concerned, a single Bose L1 Compact can be setup in three different positions depending on the use: a very compact setup for small rooms and meetings, a mid-height setup for setting the unit on a table or stage while still keeping the line array speakers at head height, and a full height setup where the base unit sets on the floor and the line array speaker is elevated just above head height. With the purchase of a second L1 Compact, I've maximized the flexibility of the system and can now use two units in a stereo pair for larger venues and crowds of up to 300 people. The high flexibility of this system also lets me simply take one L1 Compact for smaller venues for acoustic or karaoke performances. Each L1 Compact contains two channels of input for a microphone, acoustic guitar, and a pc, dvd player, or even an iPod or iPhone.
The sound of the Bose L1 Compact is simply amazing (especially with two of them). I have absolutely no problem with feedback and can also use the system as my monitor system. In fact, the Bose L1 Compact is meant to be both mains and monitor system. I simply set up the system just behind and to the side of me and I have a feedback free setup that I use for both my mains and my monitors. This was a huge selling point for me because my daughter is now performing with me and I know how difficult it can be to sing without hearing yourself (done that many, many times over the years). I can now setup up for a performance with my daughter in about fifteen minutes and we could not be any happier with our sound. In fact, I still get compliments on the sound at just about every performance.
In conclusion, I highly recommend the Bose L1 Compact. I believe it is the most flexible, best sounding, compact PA system on the market. One word of warning, I do not recommend using this system with a full fledged rock n' roll band. I've tried it and unless you have an experienced, quiet drummer, this system is not enough for this use. This system is, however, perfect for acoustic performance, dj use, and karaoke use. I hope you'll consider the Bose L1 Compact for your next purchase.
