I have never used one of those. All I can offer is the words and advice of a friend who has.

My buddy played the cruise ships for years and they used some of the best gear available at the time. The ships always provided the PA rig.

He was familiar with and used the "normal" kind of PA cabs for years. The self powered cabs became standard. His ship was put into dry dock for 2 months for upfits and when he returned, he found one of the Bose systems like you are describing. He was a bit wary, of it, but as soon as he plugged in and turned it on, he was blown away by it's sound.

Bose makes really great gear.

The question is, the model 1 covers small venues up to 300 folks. It would seem to me that this would be large enough to handle the restaurant and private party sized crowds. Really, how loud will you be playing in a restaurant?

The Model 2 goes to larger crowds of 500.... but only you can determine which one will work best. My experience with gear has been that the more money a system cost....generally speaking...the better it would sound. I think this maxim would certainly apply with Bose gear.

From what I see, the model 1 has 12 speakers and the model 2 has 24. More speakers is always better. You will move more air so the lower end will sound better. I didn't read the manuals for power specs...

Were it me, I would go to a store that sells both and compare them side by side before I dropped that much cash on a system.

You should also not rule out the smaller compact "normal" self powered speaker systems with speaker stands and a sub.

A group came to our church several years back and used a pair of 12" speakers on stands with a sub. I thought it was a tad small for the 1000+ seat sanctuary carpeted room. But, I was pleasantly surprised by how loud and clean that system sounded in that room.

Last edited by Guitarhacker; 03/07/14 06:38 AM.
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