I made it to the music store to check out the Bose L1 Compact. My overall impression is that for the size and weight of it - absolutely amazing. I loaded up my MP3 player with some BIAB arrangements of jazz trios and quartets using RealDrums and RealTracks. I also loaded some cuts from commercial CD's. When we played them, the sound was amazing from almost anywhere I stood. I moved back about 50' in all directions and the L1 still had very nice sound. When I told him some of my gigs were outdoors, we moved the unit outside in the mall. Setup and breakdown is everything it claims to be. It literally took about 30 seconds to break it down. Once outside (again 30 second setup), I could see that it lost some punch but still sounded good from 30'. We never cranked it up to the point where the overload light would turn red. It was always at half volume. How much more it had I am not sure but it was plenty loud for a small venue. I got so involved in playing with the L1, I failed to ask to connect a piano to it. I will do this in a follow-up visit to the store.

Bose also sells a T1 sound module. It's a mixer, reverb, compressor, limiter, etc that works with the L1 series. I think it takes 5 inputs and each channel has typical Bose sound games you can play with. The mic input on the Compact has some sort of built-in Tonematch that optimizes it. I couldn't tell if it add a little reverb but singing through it sounded very nice.

The negatives I could find are:

1. The bass up close (3') seemed a little muddy. Stepping away from the unit, it cleared up. But I could tell when the upright bass was playing that regardless of sound games, capturing the bottom of the bass was a challenge. I think the subwoofer is an 8" and has a low of 60hz. An acoustic bass goes down in the mid 40hz. It sounded very good, it just didn't pound on your chest.

2. Limited expansion. If you want a subwoofer, you are out of luck. You can chain L1's together but this sounds like a bit expensive to me. There is an output jack that we connected to a Roland KC-150. The KC seemed to muddy up the overall sound of the L1. Maybe with a crossover, one could connect a sub.

I'm going back to try some different songs and play keys through it before making a decision. The light weight and easy setup are pulling me in but the sound will be the determining factor.

Rachael