[Methos1979]

My reviews are long and detailed. For those that want the quick and dirty, here you go:

Bose S1 Pro, two vocal mics, K&K equipped guitars, preamp & mixer signal chain, acoustic duo small to medium rooms - An awesome choice for great sound with small footprint, light weight and battery.

Note: I've added a detailed video demo at the bottom of this.

For those that enjoy the long, detailed versions, read on:

Okay, folks, the jury is back from deliberations and the verdict is in: The Bose S1 Pro is convicted of being an awesome amp, exactly what we hoped it would be for our needs. Over the last few years we've been going through some acoustic amps trying to find the best fit for us. 'Us' is the acoustic duo called NO1U Know, link to our Facebook page down in my sig line, if you're so inclined to check it out.

To date we have owned/used the following systems: Genz Benz Shenandoah 85, Fishman Loudbox Mini and Artist, Fishman SA220, Henriksen 'The Bud', Roland Street Cube XT, Roland AC-33, Carvin AG200, Harbinger MVL800 and now the Bose S1 Pro. All these systems had their pluses and minuses but nothing seemed to be that perfect fit. What is our definition of 'perfect'? Small, light, great room-filling sound, simple, multiple positioning, not ridiculously expensive, and able to fill a room of average size with enough volume for our mellow acoustic duo act. The Bose is the first one that ticks off all those boxes. At 15 pounds it's the lightest amp we've used except for The Bud which while slightly smaller lighter was way more expensive and I was not able to get a decent tone from it for both vocals and guitar.

When I first picked up this amp last week I initially did not get a good sound out of it after a short, rushed test run before work. It took a few days to really dial it in. For me that means a preamp for my K&K equipped guitars. I have no shortage of those and the two main ones I use work just fine. As of late we've put together a signal chain that runs the guitar through a volume pedal, a TCE BodyRez, through a TCH Harmony G-XT (for the harmonies, of course) and then through a PARA DI and into a little Behringer mixer. The wife's mic goes through the TCH G-XT to the mixer and my mic goes straight into the mixer. Mixer out to channel 1 of the Bose. Bose is set to no ToneMatch switch position, treble is flat, bass rolled off a bit.

As with most K&K guitars I'm using the PARA DI to roll off the mids significantly and also have the notch dialed way out with bass rolled off a bit and the presence and treble rolled up a little. Gain is about mid and volume is also around mid depending the guitar, a little up for the Martin, a little back for the Emerald. Using this basic setup we barely have the volume on the Bose up at the 9 o'clock position and it's more than loud enough at home in our fairly small living room/practice room. We played our first gig with it this morning and even there we only had it bumped a bit more and the volume was perfect. The room in this place is approximately 30 x 60 feet with very high ceilings and us crammed into a corner at the long end right in front of the bar. Using the Harbinger line array system this was problematic because the bass speaker (on the floor) was blocked by the bar and we suffered with uneven tone and a difficulty with dialing out the low end feedback.

While I had brought the speaker stand for the Bose, I was hoping beyond hope that I could just put the Bose on the bar as the wide legs of the speaker stand would take up a lot of floor real estate in that small area. This was confirmed when we set up last night for a sound check. So I put the Bose directly on the bar and it seemed like it would work. With the volume set just about 9 o'clock I walked around the empty room with my wireless guitar and could hear everything very well. Especially the vocals which seemed to fill the room. My only concern for today was how it would sound with a room full of patrons and also would the speaker be too much on the bar with people sitting and eating just a few feet away. It turned out to be no problem at all. I warned the couple sitting close that it might be loud and to let me know but after the first song they both smiled and shook their heads signaling it was fine. A second couple came in after they left and had the same experience.

After the first set I walked around the restaurant and talked to a few people I knew. A friend from work who was sitting about midway back on the left said it sounded great and he could hear everything just fine. I talked to another couple who were sitting further back on the right had the same opinion. These two are also friends, but are two of four people in a well-known local band and the woman also just happens to be our vocal coach and someone I took piano lessons from for two years. So basically, she KNOWS amplified sound. In fact we'd gone to see them the night before after our sound check and caught their last two sets. They have a great sound system that uses two QSC K12's, so they get it. She also confirmed that the sound was excellent. And this is with a full room of people eating and talking.

Needless to say, we are very happy. I've read a bunch of posts on this little wonder and most people's only reservation was not having enough volume to fill larger rooms. There was a whole lot of volume left to be had using the mixer and preamp setup so unless it's more of just the small speakers not being able to handle a lot of volume, I don't know what they're talking about. Next week we are playing a Celebration of Life private party in a 40x60 function room so that will be the next test. I assume I'll have the Bose on the speaker stand for that one. I'll keep you posted. I've got a short video clip my vocal coach took which shows us playing and then she sweeps to the left to show what the room looks like. You can see the Bose on the bar and how close people are as she begins to sweep. I'll see if I can attach that to this post.

In summary, if you're in a small duo like ours and use a mixer and preamp setup, you should be fine for most average sized rooms I would think. Maybe that's the difference with regard to limited power - going straight into the amp with no external signal boost. But as we require two mics and the guitar we need the mixer anyway. Although it will be interesting to test it out someday with just the wife straight into the Bose mic spot and me straight into the Bose guitar spot with the little K&K belt clip preamp. I'd bet even that super-simple setup would be great for most of the small to mid-sized gigs that we do. Oh how I would love to go to a gig carrying my guitar in the gigbag on my shoulder and the Bose amp - period! Once we get past winter I'll give it test run outside in my 5 acre backyard to see how it handles a really big 'room'.

In the meantime, count me in as a big fan of this little amp. I'll definitely be buying the battery at some point.

Initial indoor video review and demo:



Outdoors video demo:



Outdoors comparison Bose S1 Pro vs. QSC k8.2 video demo:



Demo video clips from shows: