View Single Post
  #66  
Old 02-16-2021, 08:29 AM
jpino jpino is offline
Registered User
 
Join Date: Dec 2019
Posts: 192
Default

The Pro 16 has 2x 1-star reviews on Sweetwater.com out of 5. I’d urge you to read them. This is not a skewed sample size either, check youtube/other music retailer reviews, same thing.

Quote:
Rattle rattle buzz-not good.
February 7, 2021
Customer,
Music Background: Professional gigging musician
All the new features Bose has packed into their new units is irrelevant when the quality of sound has been greatly compromised by poor design. I wonder if any of the engineers at Bose are musicians in the real world and tested these in a real world situations. If they did and let this slip by, shame on them. If there is some corporate exec that signed off on this to save a couple dollars, please fire them immediately, as I have lost faith in your expensive products once again.

I am stuck with another Bose since I missed my 45 day return window. Covid hasn't helped as I would have noticed an extreme sound quality issue had I been able to play out more with the L1subpar16.

Sweetwater sent out another L1subpar16 in attempts to address, what I have determined to be a major design flaw, something that is incorporated into the hundreds, if not thousands, of systems already manufactured. Sweetwater has lost money shipping me a replacement L1subpar16 and return shipping for the old L1subpar16.

Forget about low end. Forget about have a full sounding solo acoustic or electric guitar. Forget about adding a bass player, or kick pedal, or anything that requires a full range of low end sound.

Who cares about a racetrack sub design when the unit as a whole is affected. Also, I don't see any ergonomic benefit they advertise. This sub is basically as big and heavy as my model II sub. Plus they don't include a protective slip cover for the sub this time around-very unprofessional. This unit does not deserve pro in the title.

The worst of it-

The array, oh the horrible array. What have you done Bose? Quality of build has been greatly diminished with this new design.

I used my already purchased sub and left the new one in the box to save any of my already wasted time. I put my original line array on and got to the problem areas. Then I swapped and put the newly shipped out array on. Same issues.

The one piece 16 driver array is half the weight of one of the 12 driver arrays of my L1 Model II.

The L1subpar16 array has a very shallow connection to the sub, The array extension is a light, hollow piece of plastic that causes the array to lean forward. Feels cheap and looks sloppy. I've never used it a at gig.

There is buzzing and rattling in the L1subpar16 array that does not happen on my L1 Model II. The rattling is dominant in the speakers that are head level. I did squat down and could hear some in the lower array, but not as much as at the top of the array. So I really get to notice the nastiness at standing playing level. One cannot simply enjoy playing music without the distraction.

Volume on unit was set about 11 o'clock. So who knows what would happen trying to use higher volume levels. Forget about bigger gigs.

Tried all the eq'd switch presets on the Bose on channel 1 and even turned bass all the way down on the channel.

I even tried using the flimsy extension to see if it added any decoupling from the sub to make any difference-nope.
Quote:
I sent it back. Extremely disappointed
January 17, 2021
Dustin Allen, Florida
Music Background: Worship Leader / Songwriter 20+ years
Didn't have a good experience with the L1 Pro 16. The line array spacer was made of very poor material that made the entire line array rock back and forth. One wrong person leaning a little on it and it would break easily. The Speakers have a high pitched hiss (even when nothing is plugged in) and it gets louder as you turn up the volume. There is only one reverb setting on the app and it's not a very good reverb. I sent mine back as did many others I've talked with. I did a 4 part video on YT that shows all of this. Extremely dissatisfied. However the old L1 systems are great. Hopefully we can get back to those sometime soon
These units were rushed. How do we know this? They have compromised wobbly connections/components, can develop a rattle, and some even have a permanent high hiss.

If I had to have a stick PA, hands down the EV Evolve 30M or EV Evolve 50M are a much more reliable choice. Or the Fishman SA for portability. But by all means, keep drinking that $1800 Bose koolaid.

Last edited by Teleplucker; 02-16-2021 at 09:00 AM. Reason: Rule #1
Reply With Quote