Bose S1 Pro vs. Fishman loudbox mini charge

[Silverspur]

While sound quality may be subjective, imo the most significant differences between the two other than price are :

- the Bose can be pole mounted. It makes a difference if the venue gets crowded and hoisting it above head level would improve the dispersion;

- the Fishman has a master volume control making it easier to adjust the overall volume.

[lkingston]

Another difference is the battery type. The Fishman uses a sealed lead acid battery, the Bose uses a lithium battery. The advantages of the lithium batter are faster charge times and no gradual decreasing of output power as the battery discharges. The advantage of the lead acid battery is that it is far cheaper to replace.

[Groberts]

Originally Posted by lkingston

Another difference is the battery type. The Fishman uses a sealed lead acid battery, the Bose uses a lithium battery. The advantages of the lithium batter are faster charge times and no gradual decreasing of output power as the battery discharges. The advantage of the lead acid battery is that it is far cheaper to replace.

I believe I read the Fishman Loubox Mini Charge Battery is supposed to last up to 12 hours. That lets me do a weekend of gigs without worrying about re-charging. If they are cheaper to replace if and when that time comes, great!

[BoneDigger]

It seems to me that if you need to have them side by side to discern a difference, then probably it won't make a huge difference to anyone in an audience. Form factor and price would be a bigger concern at this point.

[dcopper]

If no one mentioned this before, search this forum for mini charge and BOSE S1.
Many of us have written on these amps. I did a comparison on the Freeplay Live, the BOSE S1 and the LB Mini Charge. When I A/B/C'd them, I by far preferred the plug and play of the MC. At that point I had discounted the S1. The Freeplay Live has very low input gain so you need some preamp or mixer to get some decent tones but it sounded pretty good (The first version of the FPL, not the new version which had not been released yet).
So okay, saying all that, it was my birthday and I got approval from the boss to buy the S1 to try it out. I just did not feel like the GC sound room was a good place to really see what the S1 could do. I brought it home and plugged in my K&K pm equipped Taylors and used the Tone match setting. Cutting the bass and boosting the treble gave me a pretty easy to use tone without any preamps. I used the xVive wireless and it sounded darn good, filling the room.
Next I tried an SM58 with the tone match mic setting and again cut a little bass and added some treble and it easily sounded very good with the onboard reverb.
What really surprised me is that my wireless headset mics (Galaxy Audio and Shure PSM35 sounded really good and did not squeal with feedback. I was able to dial in pretty good gain before even a hint of feedback. I could not get anywhere near that with my AER 60/3. So I am happy with the S1 and pleasantly surprised at how simple it was to get decent tone. That said, I am working with the settings on my BOSS VE8 for added guitar tonal tweaks and some effects, along with vocal effects. It is working out well.
So- what about the MC? Well, I liked it so much, I am picking one up this week, with the nice little backpack. It was such an easy plug and play, just like the LB Artist and Performer I have. This battery portability is really a cool thing when you play outside and patio type gigs. A lot of coffee houses also require you to run long extension cords for power.
So after a previous post saying I had tried the S1 and just was not impressed, as I said, the crow tastes fine and I am happily surprised. As an aside, I had the first version of the BOSE L1/B1 with the huge and heavy home plate sized base. I found that my K8s sounded better back then and sold it off. The S1 is portable, practical, and at least for me, is a great option for most of my gigging.
Hope that helps- do a good search and you will see what your colleagues here say as well about their experiences.
davidc

[Groberts]

Originally Posted by dcopper

If no one mentioned this before, search this forum for mini charge and BOSE S1.
Many of us have written on these amps. I did a comparison on the Freeplay Live, the BOSE S1 and the LB Mini Charge. When I A/B/C'd them, I by far preferred the plug and play of the MC. At that point I had discounted the S1. The Freeplay Live has very low input gain so you need some preamp or mixer to get some decent tones but it sounded pretty good (The first version of the FPL, not the new version which had not been released yet).
So okay, saying all that, it was my birthday and I got approval from the boss to buy the S1 to try it out. I just did not feel like the GC sound room was a good place to really see what the S1 could do. I brought it home and plugged in my K&K pm equipped Taylors and used the Tone match setting. Cutting the bass and boosting the treble gave me a pretty easy to use tone without any preamps. I used the xVive wireless and it sounded darn good, filling the room.
Next I tried an SM58 with the tone match mic setting and again cut a little bass and added some treble and it easily sounded very good with the onboard reverb.
What really surprised me is that my wireless headset mics (Galaxy Audio and Shure PSM35 sounded really good and did not squeal with feedback. I was able to dial in pretty good gain before even a hint of feedback. I could not get anywhere near that with my AER 60/3. So I am happy with the S1 and pleasantly surprised at how simple it was to get decent tone. That said, I am working with the settings on my BOSS VE8 for added guitar tonal tweaks and some effects, along with vocal effects. It is working out well.
So- what about the MC? Well, I liked it so much, I am picking one up this week, with the nice little backpack. It was such an easy plug and play, just like the LB Artist and Performer I have. This battery portability is really a cool thing when you play outside and patio type gigs. A lot of coffee houses also require you to run long extension cords for power.
So after a previous post saying I had tried the S1 and just was not impressed, as I said, the crow tastes fine and I am happily surprised. As an aside, I had the first version of the BOSE L1/B1 with the huge and heavy home plate sized base. I found that my K8s sounded better back then and sold it off. The S1 is portable, practical, and at least for me, is a great option for most of my gigging.
Hope that helps- do a good search and you will see what your colleagues here say as well about their experiences.
davidc

Great post David. Will be interested for your thoughts once you have the Fishman LoudBox Mini Charge and Bose S1 both at home. Your point about simply dialing in a useable sound based on the merit of the S1 alone is well taken.

I still want to revisit the S1. It could be a super cool compliment to my Bose L1 Compact at times. Family voice and all. Hmmm.

[dcopper]

I don't think there is a bad choice here, at least for most players. I would also not give up on the Mackie FreePlay. With a good mixer or good preamps it could certainly be a contender. I had a chance to buy one at a greatly reduced price since they could not find the AC adapter or the lithium battery.
I did not in thinking that I would like to audition the new FP Live when it comes out.
I am pretty picky about amps - love my Fishman LB Artist and Performer, and the AER 60/3 is a fantastic piece of gear. That all said, my goal is to simplify things so the S1 and the MC really fit that bill. For guitar tones, I think the MC is a bit more plug and play, and has some better control over your tone. Fishman does add a bit of their unique color to their acoustic amps- not in a bad way in my opinion. The S1 is more true clear sound.
Using both of them together will be fun. I will probably run vocals through the S1 on a stand, and place the MC below it for guitar. This gives me flexibility to add an additional mic or mic/guitar when I am joined by friends. Anyway, these are all GOOD choices.
I have all of those things covered with the LB amps I already have and a K8 if ever needed. I just really like the portability and flexibility of battery power. Now I am working on finding a way to power my Shure BLX wireless receiver.
davidc

[lkingston]

Originally Posted by dcopper

I don't think there is a bad choice here, at least for most players. I would also not give up on the Mackie FreePlay. With a good mixer or good preamps it could certainly be a contender. I had a chance to buy one at a greatly reduced price since they could not find the AC adapter or the lithium battery.
I did not in thinking that I would like to audition the new FP Live when it comes out.
I am pretty picky about amps - love my Fishman LB Artist and Performer, and the AER 60/3 is a fantastic piece of gear. That all said, my goal is to simplify things so the S1 and the MC really fit that bill. For guitar tones, I think the MC is a bit more plug and play, and has some better control over your tone. Fishman does add a bit of their unique color to their acoustic amps- not in a bad way in my opinion. The S1 is more true clear sound.
Using both of them together will be fun. I will probably run vocals through the S1 on a stand, and place the MC below it for guitar. This gives me flexibility to add an additional mic or mic/guitar when I am joined by friends. Anyway, these are all GOOD choices.
I have all of those things covered with the LB amps I already have and a K8 if ever needed. I just really like the portability and flexibility of battery power. Now I am working on finding a way to power my Shure BLX wireless receiver.
davidc

I believe that is a good way to do it. Vocals lose clarity and get mudding when they come out of a speaker that is close to the ground regardless of how good the speaker is.

[leew3]

I must admit to some misgivings given the 'vs.' in the title of the thread, but good job folks. There is a lot of solid and helpful information here that is respectfully presented, what a great forum.

My .02 as an S1 owner is just to add that what I continue to have to adapt to is what seems to my ears as wider dispersion at lower volume with this little beauty. As others have noted, I was skeptical but have not found it to be limited in terms of coverage. In fact it 'seems' louder since I can hear it more clearly than I was able to hear my Loudbox Artist in the past. YMMV, etc.

[Davis Webb]

The S1 sounds the most natural, for guitar and vocal. More natural than the Fishman. I owned both. The Fishman is okay. Kind of adds its own color to the sound.

Why so many of us are going nuts over the S1 is that it sounds like you, playing in your living room, but louder. It does not add tonal color. That and its 15 pound weight, smart eq and overall ease of use seals the deal.

[Groberts]

Originally Posted by Davis Webb

The S1 sounds the most natural, for guitar and vocal. More natural than the Fishman. I owned both. The Fishman is okay. Kind of adds its own color to the sound.

Why so many of us are going nuts over the S1 is that it sounds like you, playing in your living room, but louder. It does not add tonal color. That and its 15 pound weight, smart eq and overall ease of use seals the deal.

Respectfully, that was not my experience at all. The S1 imparted an artificial color to the sound of my guitar amplified. I will revisit because this thread has me wondering if maybe I should try different placement for the S1. I tried several orientations, but not elevated on a stand.

This may be one of those cases where some see the dress as white, and others see it as blue. :-)

As for ease of use, (again, not meant to be argumentative), I found the controls and knobs being on the back of the Bose S1 less user-friendly than the controls on the front of the Loudbox Mini Charge.

Your milage may vary. and that is totally great. I just hear it different I guess.

[lkingston]

What I hear with all the Fishman Loudboxes (not just the mini) is that they complement the sound of high end factory piezo pickups very well. They alter the sound of a piezo in a way that is quite pleasing. Where I prefer the Bose systems is on the high end third party pickup systems that some of us love. I use my S1 as an extra speaker for my Elite Acoustics D6-8. The sound of the D6-8 is exactly what you would get out of a home studio with a high end mixer and a reference monitor. When I run My Martin D15 with the Shertler AG-6 and S-mic pickup into my D6-8, it is very true to the actual sound of the pickup.

Anyone who has tried recording a piezo directly into a DAW is going to know how unflattering a clean audio path can be to a piezo pickup. You’d be far better off to run it through a good acoustic amp (like a Loudbox) and mic that.

Not so with a high end pickup system. My Shertler AG-6 and S-Mic sounds rather spectacular recorded direct into a DAW. I get that same sound live running it into the D6-8. The S1 preserves this while adding more coverage. I want true sound, not a sound that is meant to complement a piezo.

[jonfields45]

I have the Mini Charge and if I connect a DI to the mic channel my acoustic guitar sounds like it is missing some bass boost from the instrument channel. Going direct to the back panel aux input I get what sounds the same as the mic channel equalization. It it is easy to tweak the tone controls to get the mic and instrument channels sounding the same. For my electric guitar, the DI to the mic channel (or back panel aux input) sounds best.

I bought the Mini Charge because, at the time, it was dramatically cheaper (-$200, -15%) with a battery and roughly of similar capability. From a practical standpoint, I do prefer the SLA battery as they are cheap and plentiful in every possible physical size. When Bose updates the S1 the proprietary Li-Ion battery pack will be orphaned.

Both of these products are hugely more capable than the various Roland amps with ridiculous power claims out of 8 AA batteries.

[89bruin]

Originally Posted by Groberts

Respectfully, that was not my experience at all. The S1 imparted an artificial color to the sound of my guitar amplified. I will revisit because this thread has me wondering if maybe I should try different placement for the S1. I tried several orientations, but not elevated on a stand.

This may be one of those cases where some see the dress as white, and others see it as blue. :-)

As for ease of use, (again, not meant to be argumentative), I found the controls and knobs being on the back of the Bose S1 less user-friendly than the controls on the front of the Loudbox Mini Charge.

Your milage may vary. and that is totally great. I just hear it different I guess.

This matches my experience, as I’ve already shared in another thread here. With the S1 I struggled to get a natural sound from any of my guitar/pickup combinations which included three different USTs and a Baggs Lyric. The Bose was harsh and lacked bass and warmth. It took A LOT of tweaking with a Baggs Venue to get anything approaching a natural acoustic sound. I did try the S1 with a mic’d guitar and things were only marginally better. I don’t have any of these issues with the Mini Charge.

Ultimately, it comes down to what you want to hear. For me the Bose didn’t offer the sound I want or expect and the Mini Charge does.

[Davis Webb]

Originally Posted by Groberts

Respectfully, that was not my experience at all. The S1 imparted an artificial color to the sound of my guitar amplified. I will revisit because this thread has me wondering if maybe I should try different placement for the S1. I tried several orientations, but not elevated on a stand.

This may be one of those cases where some see the dress as white, and others see it as blue. :-)

As for ease of use, (again, not meant to be argumentative), I found the controls and knobs being on the back of the Bose S1 less user-friendly than the controls on the front of the Loudbox Mini Charge.

Your milage may vary. and that is totally great. I just hear it different I guess.

Funny thing the human ear. I think we were listening to different set ups. Mine is just J45 into the Bose, thats it. And my mic straight into the Bose.

Did you do that setup, just guitar and mic, no DI, no nothing else?