Comparison thread Bose S1 vs EAE D6-8

[lkingston]

Here’s the thing. The EAE D6-8 is the best sounding guitar and vocals amp I have ever heard if you don’t go past it’s capacity. When my duo partner and I practiced with it, it was just a wonderful experience. The same thing when I practice through it by myself. It’s sounds like you are in a well equipped home studio with everything you need to dial in an ideal sound: great EQs, a touch of compression and several great sounding tweakable DSPs. I can’t think of a better one box battery powered system to achieve the original poster’s intent of entertaining an intimate group of 20 to 30 people. It would be perfect for that application.

Because it sounds so freakin’ good, I’m going to leave it plugged in in the living room and practice with it every time I have the house to myself. If I grab it and go, it will have a full charge since it is plugged in all the time and I will be able to play for at least six hours. If I played a battery gig one day, and had another gig the next, it would have at least a 90% charge for the second day and I would be fine. It wouldn’t be a full charge but it wouldn’t matter. If after a year and a half, I notice my battery play time has shortened, I’ll just take it to Batteries Plus and swap out the battery for $20. Yes, it’s old school, but it should still work pretty well.

The situation which would show off the LA battery weakness would be a long battery powered gig where you were playing at full power. In this case, you’d gradually lose power as the LA battery discharges and the sound would suffer.

My Bose S1 sounds very good. The battery technology is vastly better. It is tiny. It’s got a battery boost circuit and is going to deliver full power throughout a battery powered gig. But it doesn’t have enough inputs for my duo and it doesn’t give me that magic studio quality processing that I can get with the D6-8 (unless I use it as a D6-8 extension).

Thus what I’m going to do is use the D6-8 as my main amp for less than 40 people. I’ll add the S1 to augment the D6-8 for 40 - 80 people. I have a Bose L1 if I need more than that.

[dannyg1]

Originally Posted by lkingston

I had quite a lengthly Facebook Messenger conversation with EAE about their battery system. One thing he mentioned is that through Sunburst Gear they had an external battery unit for EAE and Sunburst Gear amps called the MPB1. That has been discontinued and will be replaced with a new lithium ion version that will give about four and a half hours of play time after a two hour charge. Here is a link to a description of the discontinued lead acid battery version:

https://www.wiredathome.com/sunburst...ries-speakers/

I’m sure that you’ll find there are many better and less expensive options when it comes to external power. A cursory look at this powerbank has me thinking it’s got only one 12v/7.2ah battery in it and a quick charger (with a car lighter socket powered option. That option would charge far more slowly as car lighters are fused at 1.5 amps).

Here’s one that’s $100 and can run any 9-12v DC box that pulls 15a or less. It’ll be somewhere else n the 10-15ah range (I’d have to research the thing to get a real ah rating. It says that it’s 22ah but at this price, I doubt that greatly). It does take 8 hours to charge though, but I actually know a workaround for that, at least for many of these power banks that have car battery clips.

https://m.ebay.com/itm/ACOPOWER-150W...QAAOSwb3laCpxD

Something like this Imuto power generator has greatly enhanced functionality as compared to the Sunburst gear box and can be outfitted with a pure sine inverter attachment (though only 100w) that makes it a tiny version of the larger kit battery/inverter systems many of us already use here.

https://m.ebay.com/itm/iMuto-185Wh-5...ss!08817!US!-1

Going up in size/price from there gets you more and more power and features, though at the ultimate cost of size/weight.

Then there’s the option of just buying a lithium battery (like the 12v/10ah one I posted earlier in the thread) and a small charger, swapping that with the internal battery once it dies, on set.

A smallish charger in a metal case like this, at 10a multi-stage (that’s important btw), can be had for far less than this (around $30) but I didn’t want to look to completion:

https://m.ebay.com/itm/12V-10A-140W-...EAAOSwfpBaZeaQ

Other options are to adapt battery packs from one product to another (the Bose S1 battery looks like it would be a great candidate for the D6-8 but you have to be sure that the EAE can take 14.4v constant. I can’t see why it wouldn’t as lead acid is 13.8v at full charge)

[dannyg1]

You’ll have to go through eBay to get that battery for anywhere near $20:

https://m.ebay.com/itm/ExpB-Replacem...IAAOSwPkJaciG9

It’s $40 (and then tax) at batteries+.

[Cuki79]

Can any EAE user comment on the loudness?

EAE 4" is 20W
EAE 5"1/2 is 30W with lows going to 55Hz at -3dB
EAE 8" is 40W with lows going to 40Hz at -3dB

if they are indeed studio monitors, the speakers should not be high efficient speakers to provide the most linear response.

My point is 40W bi amped on a 8" + tweeter means 25-30W to the 8" and 15-10W to the tweeter.

Those things can't be loud. Especially if they produce a full-sound going down to 40Hz or 55Hz.

Note that they are advertised as
"Live-Performance 2-way Monitor" not "P.A." and no SPL at 1m specifications are given.

Are those things really loud?

I mean entry level studio monitors will always sound better than any bucking amp... But will never be usable in streets as P.A.

[lkingston]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

Can any EAE user comment on the loudness?

EAE 4" is 20W
EAE 5"1/2 is 30W with lows going to 55Hz at -3dB
EAE 8" is 40W with lows going to 40Hz at -3dB

if they are indeed studio monitors, the speakers should not be high efficient speakers to provide the most linear response.

My point is 40W bi amped on a 8" + tweeter means 25-30W to the 8" and 15-10W to the tweeter.

Those things can't be loud. Especially if they produce a full-sound going down to 40Hz or 55Hz.

Note that they are advertised as
"Live-Performance 2-way Monitor" not "P.A." and no SPL at 1m specifications are given.

Are those things really loud?

I mean entry level studio monitors will always sound better than any bucking amp... But will never be usable in streets as P.A.

No, they aren’t loud. Your biamp estimates fit with what I am hearing. Somebody quoted 104db at 1m SPL levels from correspondence with EAE, which would put it at about the same level as you can reach with an Bose S1. It has no more “throw” than a near field monitor.

It does have a great little mixer with XLR outs which is meant to feed your mix to a PA system. There is also a right channel out to run it in stereo. There are also two aux sends for monitor mixes. There is a mono sum switch.

There is also a button which makes the two XLR outs send the inputs from channels one and two rather than a stereo mix. If you are doing just guitar and vocals, this would let you send those two things to the soundman instead of a mix.

As I play with it, I am seriously considering just aiming it at myself and plugging it into a PA speaker or two for everybody else.

[lkingston]

Correction on the S1 wattage. It’s 80 rather than 40 Watts:

http://toonz.ca/bose/wiki/index.php?...%C2%AE_Compact

[Marty C]

Originally Posted by lkingston

Correction on the S1 wattage. It’s 80 rather than 40 Watts:

http://toonz.ca/bose/wiki/index.php?...%C2%AE_Compact

Thanks for looking this up. However where in the comparison do you see the 80 watts? I can’t find it.

[lkingston]

They just changed it from 80 to “tba”! That was since This post less than an hour ago!

[NotValid]

Originally Posted by varmonter

the difference in weight probably has a lot to do
with the types of batteries and the cabinet construction.
The eAE seems more robust compared to the bose plastic.
I would be curious to know if the EAE or bose when drained
will function normally if plugged in. I would think so.

EAE uses MDF as its cabinet material which is far superior to any kind of plastic. Not just for durability but for sound production as well. The best is solid birch face with MDF back and sides. Thats how you get that snappy natural bass which sounds much better than DSP or "digital bass".
I have no doubt the EAE surpases Bose in audio production. In the audiophile world we have a saying "No highs, no lows, must be Bose" They are ranked in the same league as B&O, equipment for the clueless dentist. Not saying anything bad about bose mind you, they have some of the best pro live P.A equipment that are found in the best concert halls. But the rest of their "prosummer" range can be beat by much less. Its the name that carries most of their weight. And yes, I have owned almost every speaker Bose makes. But I have never owned a Bose P.A. *To my ears Bose sounds fake. IMHO, YMMV Yada, Yada etc.

*Not trying to start a war. Lol

[Cuki79]

Originally Posted by NotValid

In the audiophile world we have a saying "No highs, no lows, must be Bose" [...]
*Not trying to start a war. Lol

lol. It's exactly what I noticed. I guess Bose L1 do marvels in "bad acoustic" environment where you would end to cut the lows and highs anyway.

The Bose S1 has even less lows since my point of view is that it also lacks some low mids... However it does not prevent me from having GAS for it (I am a complicated guy).

For me, the only real competitor is the Fishman mini charge. EAE amps are way heavier, Laney AH4x4 have poor fixed gains, ACUS also use lead acid batteries. I read somewhere the Fishman mini charge has limited lows on battery power... For me if I have to use lead acid batteries, I'd prefer to use a real amp or speaker.

Bose is an expensive toy... but who does not like expensive toys?

PS: I wished amp manufacturers would just give the opportunity to bypass the power transformer/power supply and enable people just to plugged their own batteries or DC Boosted batteries....

Cuki

[Murphy Slaw]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

... However it does not prevent me from having GAS for it (I am a complicated guy).

Aren't we all here in this Forum ?

[varmonter]

Does anyone know if you can eq the aux send
separately on the d6-8. The reason i ask would
be to send a signal to a powered speaker like
a k10 and have some separate eq control
without using a board??

[lkingston]

Originally Posted by varmonter

Does anyone know if you can eq the aux send

separately on the d6-8. The reason i ask would

be to send a signal to a powered speaker like

a k10 and have some separate eq control

without using a board??

The aux sends are done a stereo pair which can be pre or post fader, but there is no separate EQ. Just volume and pan control.

[lkingston]

Originally Posted by Cuki79

lol. It's exactly what I noticed. I guess Bose L1 do marvels in "bad acoustic" environment where you would end to cut the lows and highs anyway.



The Bose S1 has even less lows since my point of view is that it also lacks some low mids... However it does not prevent me from having GAS for it (I am a complicated guy).



For me, the only real competitor is the Fishman mini charge. EAE amps are way heavier, Laney AH4x4 have poor fixed gains, ACUS also use lead acid batteries. I read somewhere the Fishman mini charge has limited lows on battery power... For me if I have to use lead acid batteries, I'd prefer to use a real amp or speaker.



Bose is an expensive toy... but who does not like expensive toys?



PS: I wished amp manufacturers would just give the opportunity to bypass the power transformer/power supply and enable people just to plugged their own batteries or DC Boosted batteries....



Cuki

I absolutely LOVE my EAE D6-8 in spite of what may appear to be flaws on paper. Yes it’s heavy, but it just oozes high quality. The construction is top notch all the way around.

You can see this in little things like when you take the battery door off, it is a thick piece of metal rubberized on one side. The thumb screws are spring loaded and stay attached to the panel. When you turn it up, everything is rock solid. I can’t make the cabinet resonate like I can with the S1.

The way they did the LA battery makes sense to me as I use it. It’s clearly designed to be your main home amp and plugged in when you’re home. The battery charges slowly, but if you do a gig and take it home and plug it back in when you’re done, it will be 90% charged by the next afternoon when you are likely to need it again. The blue charging light may not go off until that evening or the next day, but that doesn’t mean it’s not ready for use. Charging it slowly this way maximizes the life of the cheap LA battery and really has no practical negatives if you get in the habit of plugging it in when you’re home. The 72 hour figure is a worst case scenario where you have a lowest quality battery and it’s completely discharged. They could have made the charging rate whatever they wanted, and they decided that this was the best compromise.

If you use an external battery, it is designed to use both that and the internal battery. This is actually pretty cool when you think about it.

I play fingerstyle guitar with the fleshy part of my fingertips rather than long nails. As a result I have to crank the guitar up. I’m also playing thumb bass lines, so I need to bring up the lows in particular. With most amps this leads to a bunch of mud and low note feedback by the time the volume is loud enough. That is why I carry an EQ/preamp pedal.

This is the first amp that I’ve owned where I am happy with the built in EQ. I can dial in exactly the sound I want with no mud or resonating frequencies at comfortable playing levels. That plus all the DSP I like to use.

The biggest thing though is the sound. I have a Bose L1/T1 setup as well. I love the sound of that as well, but my wife won’t let me keep it setup in the living room. This gives me that same sort of high quality sound in one box at home and small venue levels. It also lets me plug into a larger system and send a perfectly mixed and monitored stereo feed to the sound guy.

The D6-8 is one of those boxes where you might look at it on paper and say “meh, it’s not what I’m looking for”, but once you try it out, you really can’t live without it. She’s a lot hotter than her Tinder profile... ;-)

[varmonter]

Originally Posted by lkingston

The aux sends are done a stereo pair which can be pre or post fader, but there is no separate EQ. Just volume and pan control.

thanks I asked this question of EAE and they sent me this
response.



"Thanks for bring this up, we didn't think about using the D6-8 that way,

We will add this feature to our next software update. Existing users can update the D6-8 software via Midi from a PC.

For your application, would you need a 3 Band EQ with mid sweep.

Would you need Gate and Compressor functions as well?[\QUOTE]


Thanks,


online support
Elite Acoustics Engineering, Inc."

Nice that they listen to end user suggestions?