Bose L1 Model II

That approach was for each band member to use a separate L1, serving as both monitor and main speaker. Because L1s put out perceptually big sound without being turned up as much as other monitors, you could put them behind a band’s front line without as much risk of feedback. More importantly, this would cut down on volume wars that result from band members going, “I can’t hear myself!” Everyone would hear themselves and others, and the resulting love-in of a monitor mix would also be perfect for the audience.

The most surprising thing about this unconventional wisdom was that, for the most part, it worked. Skeptics became curious, and some of the curious became converts, this writer among them. I have two goals in this review: First, to help you decide if the L1 concept is right for you, whether you’re a solo act or in a band with others. Second, to look at some ways in which the L1 Model II improves on the original design.

OVERVIEW

We musicians love to say one speaker projects or “throws” sound better than another, but what exactly are we talking about? Not that a speaker is louder initially, or that more watts are pumping it. Instead, the key is less volume loss over distance: If two systems kick out the same volume at three feet, the better one retains more perceived loudness and definition at 50 or 100 feet. As a rule of thumb, lots of small speakers achieve this more efficiently than one or two larger ones. Arena tours use line arrays — identical and relatively small cabinets, stacked in a sort of comma shape and flown from the ceiling. It’s accurate to think of an original L1 or Model II as a “personal line array.” With arena systems, the goal is for the nosebleeds to hear sound that’s on par with third row center; with the L1, it’s that performers won’t require excessive stage volume to project clearly to their bandmates and audience.

Like the original L1, the Model II begins with a base, or power stand, that houses the power amp and audio connections, and supports the speaker column. This comes in two halves for easy carrying, and contains a vertical array of 24 full-range speakers. Compact passive woofers, called B1 modules, handle the bass. While you could buy original L1 systems (which Bose still sells) with or without the B1, the Model II is sold with a minimum of one B1. Why? Old L1 columns were ported to give them enough standalone bass response for vocals-only use. On the Model II, Bose ditched the port to make room for the alternate-facing speakers, so you really do need a B1 for anything but, say, flute or trumpet. You can’t put Model II speaker columns on a Model I base (or vice versa), but the B1 still plugs into either system.

WHAT’S NEW

The Model II’s base is more sparse than the original, with a solitary audio input, line-level and powered outputs for bass, and an input trim knob. The power amp still lives there, and its 500W are more than sufficient to drive the main column and up to two B1 modules at levels that will easily fill a large hotel ballroom. An optional PackLite power amp, which you connect to the 1/4" bass output on the power stand, drives up to two more B1s.

Bose moved multi-channel mixing and audio processing to the optional T1 ToneMatch device (see “ToneMatch” at right), which was a smart decision. Not everyone needs those features, and putting the multi-input panel on the old, semicircle-shaped base gave it a large footprint. The new base looks and handles like a stealth aircraft by comparison, and in its included padded case, takes up about as much car space as a three-octave keyboard.

Another positive change is that the speakers in the column now alternately face left and right, each at about a 30-degree angle relative to the front of the grille. At first, I wondered if the Model II was a stereo system, but it’s not. For stereo, you still need two systems, but the Model II has a noticeably wider sweet spot, especially when it comes to those pesky, directional treble frequencies. I walked around the unit in a circle with a demo song playing from a Yamaha Motif XS. In a diet-size pie slice directly behind it, the highs got a bit muffled, but everywhere else, the clarity and detail was as uniform as it was stunning.

TONEMATCH

The original L1 gave you a wired remote so that the only bending over you did was when you got paid for the gig, but it only controlled the first two channels. Now, the optional T1 (see Figure 1 below) is both mixer and remote. A standard Ethernet cable carries both audio and power between the T1 and the base, and the Model II comes with a cable that has beefy locking barrels protecting the ends. The inclusion of master, aux, and channel outs, plus a separate power supply, means you can tweak the T1 when the Model II is packed up, or connect it to a model I system or other PA.

The heart of the T1 is ToneMatch — you can put a different preset on each of its four input channels. Presets are named for anything you might want to amplify, including lots of well-known mics, all manner of acoustic and electric guitars and basses, horns, and so on. You even get ToneMatch presets for guitar amps miked with a Shure SM57 or Sennheiser E609, and a keyboard category includes Rhodes, Wurly, and Clavinet settings. Each preset is basically a “macro” for ideal sound, as it optimizes the incoming mic or instrument’s EQ to the Model II’s speakers. The original L1 did something similar, via clicker dials on the base for channels 1 and 2. This is more sophisticated, available on all channels, and the roster of presets is expandable via USB, though I was bummed not to find a Mac version of the necessary L1 Updater program on Bose’s website. Bose says the Mac version will be there by the time you read this.

The T1 is also a generous effects box. In addition to its ToneMatch preset, each channel gets up to three effects at once: compressor/gate, modulation (several flavors of chorus, flanger, phaser, or tremolo), and delay. Each channel also gets a three-band EQ whose bands change based on the ToneMatch preset, plus one fully parametric band. Reverb type is a global setting, though each channel has separate send and brightness amounts.

The T1’s effects and EQ sound on par with what I’d expect from a keyboard company’s latest flagship workstation. The T1 is also quiet, adding very little hiss even when you need a lot of gain. I tried the Rhodes and Clav ToneMatch presets on vintage specimens of each instrument, and they really did bring out more of the desired character. Layering the “Phaser Warm” and “Tape Delay” effects on the Rhodes and Clav was a cable-car ride to Funkytown, although the delay lacks tap tempo. I then powered the T1 off with a chord held down and the power stand still on. No pop — not even a little one.

All this makes the T1 tempting as a keyboard mixer, but a “gotcha” is that since it’s designed to mix into the Model II, which is mono, it doesn’t take stereo inputs or do stereo routing. It would be great if you could give the L1 the mono signal it needs, yet pass stereo to the front-of-house, as you could by using an aux send on a garden-variety mixer. If you run your keys in mono, especially if any of them are vintage, the T1’s ergonomics, sound quality, and effects make it highly desirable.

For small combos such as songwriting duos, the T1 is really in its element. It has inputs enough for your stage piano, your partner’s guitar pickup, and both your vocal mics, and will help you quickly dial in the sweetest mix you and your audience have ever heard.

IN USE

According to Bose, everyone in a band should sing or play through their own L1, but I found that the Model II gleefully holds its own, and benefits everyone onstage, even when it’s a lone wolf among conventional PA gear. At two gigs, I used it as my keyboard amp, pairing it with a single B1, and a Mackie 1202VLZ mixer in place of the T1. Both gigs were in large ballrooms that seated about 300, with a 10-piece dance band that included a loud drummer, plus sax and trumpet located right behind me. To see how the Model II faired as the only amplification in a more intimate setting, see “The Bose as Sole PA” below.

With the Model II at rear stage left, I could hear myself at more than adequate levels, and so could my bandmates. Only rarely did any of them ask me to turn down — that was something new. How did it sound in the house? On a break, the engineer commented, “Your keys, especially pianos, sound so clean and musical out of whatever that tall, skinny thing is that I’ve been dialing you way back in the mains.” This was a shock, because “the mains” were nice stuff: EAW speakers, Crown power amps, and an Allen & Heath GL-series mixer. Was he just rationalizing under-mixing the keyboards, as sound guys often do? The half dozen or so “Dude! Nice keys!” remarks I got from audience members suggested otherwise.

Besides turning up too loud, we deal with bad monitoring by “squinting with our ears” at the frequencies we can hear. Often, we don’t realize how much this distracts from the music . . . until we don’t have to do it anymore. I know that I played better because of how effortlessly I heard my full range through the Model II. The drummer and I seemed to lock up more tightly as well, and when I later asked him if he felt the same way, he said, “Yeah, you weren’t too loud, but I could hear all your funky ghost notes really well, which helped my groove.”

The Model II looks more like modern sculpture than audio gear, especially with the new power stand design. If you’ve ever dealt with a clipboard-toting, aesthetics-crazed wedding coordinator, you know this isn’t trivial.

CONCLUSIONS

Putting aside the rest of Bose’s product mission for a second, the L1 Model II is the ultimate live keyboard monitor, bar none. The experience of playing through it simply mops the floor with any keyboard amp or powered speaker I’ve ever used. Its price makes it a commitment, and makes Bose-ifying an entire band an even bigger one. Still, there’s a case to do so. Once you get used the collaborative monitoring that having multiple L1s encourages, you’ll find you’re fighting each other less and playing better, and pleasing the audience more. One exception is that if your gig calls for get-up-and-dance, chest-thumping bass for a crowd of 100 or more, it’d take an impractical number of B1s to accomplish what you could with regular subwoofers and a couple of 4 x 12 cabs in the bassist’s rig. For music geared towards active listening, though, the L1 Model II turns something bands normally dread — running sound from the stage — into a process that’s not only worry-free, but downright joyful.

CLAIM CHECK

Craig Jackson, senior product manager for Bose professional systems, says, “With the L1 Model II and T1 ToneMatch audio engine, Bose has introduced its most advanced system for musicians. We wanted to deliver a system that gave musicians a combination of tone, coverage, and portability previously unavailable from conventional live sound systems. To do this, we incorporated proprietary Bose technologies like ToneMatch, which lets musicians play live with recording studio tonal quality. We’ve created a large library of presets for a range of instruments and microphones, so they can be voiced for the L1 system at the touch of a button. Then, Bose Articulated Array technology lets the audience and performers experience almost the same tone and level from practically anywhere in the venue. Finally, the L1 Model II system’s proprietary folding mechanism fosters true portability, providing musicians with quicker setup in less space.”

THE BOSE AS SOLE PA

We lent our review system to Bass Player managing editor Greg Olwell, who had a gig that called for maximum sound from minimal gear. Here’s his report:

I used the L1 Model II with T1 ToneMatch as the PA at a friend’s outdoor wedding. It was my first experience with the Bose, which was the most intuitive PA I’ve ever used. The Model II was about as unobtrusive and handsome a PA as you could imagine. The sound from the ToneMatch, single tower and B1 bass module was fabulous. The acoustic guitar, electric bass, lap-steel guitar, and three-part vocal harmonies had a three-dimensional depth that flooded the yard with a complex, rich sound that seemed present throughout the space, as opposed to simply pouring out of a speaker.

While the T1’s learning curve was short, the unit was deep with helpful features, like presets for many popular mics and guitars. The only shortcoming was the number of inputs, at least for my needs at this gig. I expanded them with an external mixer, which I ran into channel 4/5 on the T1.

Often, the true value of a product becomes evident when casual bystanders feel compelled to comment on its sound. In my years of gigging and reviewing gear for Bass Player, I’ve never heard such glowing comments as the Bose system elicited from the happy couple’s friends and family. The band loved it, too, and after the gig, a non-musician friend easily disassembled it and packed it up. I can’t wait to use it again. -GREG OLWELL

SPECS

Amplified monitor and PA system

PROS
Amazingly clear sound with wide sweet spot. Minimal volume loss or change in sound character over distance. Can get very loud if necessary. Very portable and easy to set up and use. ToneMatch processor is innovative and very flexible.

CONS
ToneMatch processor doesn’t do stereo routing. Pricey.

$2,499; with dual B1 modules, $2,798.
Bose www.bose.com