Bose L1 for monitors?

Anyone ever use the Bose L1 at church?


I posted earlier about our praise band moving to the back of the church and upstairs to the choir loft. We currently use a powered mixer that we plug directly into the house system. The mixer also runs our four floor monitors.

Our current mixer doesn’t really have enough inputs to accommodate everyone, so we end up sharing mics, plugging and unplugging for instrument changes, etc.

I figured we could just get a bigger mixer and plug that into the house from upstairs (the choir and organist already play from up there). One of our members has suggested getting a Bose L1 system for our monitors. Has anyone ever used them before? Since we can plug into the house system, I’m pretty sure we won’t be using the Bose to project sound to the congregation below, just to ourselves.

Here’s our setup:

The view from our new home. We used to play just to the right of the altar, just outside of the picture. The columns along the sides hold the house speakers. I’m not sure what kind of speakers they are, I only know that’s where the sound comes from:


http://www.standrewcatholicchurch.org/uploads/images/STANDREW_VariousPages/churchInsideAngleToLeft.jpg

House Speakers:
http://www.standrewcatholicchurch.org/uploads/images/STANDREW_VariousPages/lightingRow.jpg

I don't have any pics yet of the actual space we're going to be playing in, but space is not an issue. It looks like we'll be able to spread out and relax and have a little space. We used to cram seven of us and our gear (keyboards, drums, bass, guitars, monitors, mics, mic stands, music stands) in one tiny little space.

If we can store our gear in the choir loft (the choir still uses the space), I think we could just use our existing monitors. We could carry them up there once and leave them. If we're going to have to load in/out every week, I definitely like the idea of the Bose.

I've been using the L1 system regularly for gigs for about 10 years. I'm sure it would work but it sounds like an awfully expensive system to use just for monitors. Unless you have money burning a hole in your pocket, I'd recommend a more standard type of monitor system.

I've been using the L1 system regularly for gigs for about 10 years. I'm sure it would work but it sounds like an awfully expensive system to use just for monitors. Unless you have money burning a hole in your pocket, I'd recommend a more standard type of monitor system.

I agree, but one of our members is kind of a "gadget guy" and I'm guessing he'd donate the system to the church. But yeah, it seems kind of pricey to me.

I also hear that the Bose really expresses your sound accurately, which in our case, is not always good.:oops:

Christhee 68
I agree with you about accurate sound. We respond to complaints by blaming the PA or the sound guy:}

The thing about floor wedges is that you can aim that at the players.

The linear array on the Bose spreads the sounds out, right?

http://www.bose.com/assets/images/shop_online/l1_model2_singlebass_tonematch_pkg/l1_model2_singlebass_tonematch_pkg_bl_med.jpg

That might compete down below with the loudspeakers you have now.

Getting a bigger mixer (or expanding if possible) makes more sense.

Just gotta say that that's a beautiful church.

Regarding your mixer, you can pickup small non-powered mixers pretty cheaply, often 100 or less used, plug that into one channel, or one of the auxillary inputs of the mixer you have now and....more channels.

Regarding your mixer, you can pickup small non-powered mixers pretty cheaply, often 100 or less used, plug that into one channel, or one of the auxillary inputs of the mixer you have now and....more channels.

That's a good idea, I hadn't thought of that. You mean something like this, right?

http://static.musiciansfriend.com/derivates/6/001/330/031/DV019_Jpg_Regular_631265_R.jpg

Yes or even larger. Regarding monitors, in a pinch, any type of guitar, bass, keyboard amp and make an excellent monitors. The Bose should also be fine.

Yes or even larger. Regarding monitors, in a pinch, any type of guitar, bass, keyboard amp and make an excellent monitors. The Bose should also be fine.

We've got monitors already, we're just trying to avoid having to haul them up and down the stairs to the choir loft every week.

I just remembered I have this in my garage:

http://i.ebayimg.com/00/$(KGrHqN,!k0E3Hs(0DO2BN5KQ05)tg~~_3.JPG

This might be just what we need to expand the number of inputs. We were going to use it as our main board, but since it was non-powered, we decided against it. We never thought of using it to plug into our current powered mixer. I'll let you know how it works out.

Wow, was that church built with the speakers in mind? I've never seen them blend into the architecture so well. Here they tend to be on stands, or screwed into the wall. (Doesn't help that most of our churches are from the 17th century...)
I think the bose would work as a monitor, but I can think of twp reasons not to:
a. Price. Way to pricey for just a monitor IMO.
b. 24 tiny speakers, and the in-built signal processing probably won't sound like the church speakers, so you might end up hearing something different than the congregation. You could probably sort that out with some eq-ing.

Bose L1 -- Pat liked them! (But not used as monitors, off course.)

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