Bose S1 Pro

[Goat Mick]

Originally Posted by DavidE

I use an Arriba Cases "bag" made for lights. I put in extra padding to take up the extra room. Decently protective, but the Bose bag offers shockingly little protection for the price. It should be like a Mono bag but definitely is NOT. Even at half price, I returned them to Bose.

Looks like the price of the Arriba bag went way up. Shop around. https://www.wwbw.com/Arriba-Cases-AC...ag-541814.wwbw

This is what I use as well. Very well made and will hold the power cord in the front pouch and still has room for other accessories in the pouch and in the bag as well. Great bag for the money.

[RogerPease]

I have the Arriba bag mentioned above and it works great. Plenty of room for mics, cords, preamp, songbooks, what have you, too.

The Rockville bag mentioned above looks pretty similar and is cheaper, but no personal experience.

I routinely coil up the power cord and stuff it under the top handle. Stays in there fine for short hops with just the slip cover on.
There’s nothing special about the power cord. It would be a cinch to replace as long as you don’t run out of battery power. :-P

Cheers, _Roger

[leew3]

+1 for the Arriba light bag for the S1. As mentioned, there is plenty of room for cables or a pedal or two.

[MigueldeMaria]

I have been using one for about six months now--very convenient, although I do have some issues. Maybe someone can chime in, if it's not too much of a thread-jack?

1. My S1 doesn't operate at a volume less than about 20%. There is no sound at all, then, at that point, it suddenly jumps up to being loud. I can get the volume I want by "fine-tuning" it, but I find this to be very bad design and inconvenient. Is this an S1 thing or maybe just my unit?

2. This may be related, but if I'm pumping in some background music and the signal is not quite loud enough, there is no sound. So again, if I'm playing it kind of low, and the track doesn't output that much, it will just cut out when the volume is not high enough. This can be worked-around by fiddling with the volumes on the source and the S1, but it's not that easy to manage.

3. The dispersion is very nice for what I do, background gigs and such, but i have found that it makes it more subject to feedback. I can't gig with it on the ground, even if I'm sitting behind the S1, because I will always get some feedback with my guitar (Fishman Matrix with a mic in it). This is not as bad when I have it on the pole, but it's still not great when I turn up the volume past, say 40% or so. By tweaking my notch, phase, and EQ on the guitar, i can increase the usable volume, but it's still only a fraction of what the unit can do. Has anyone figured out a solution for this?

(4.) This may not be the S1's fault, but my Sansa Clip, an MP3 player, doesn't seem to like the 3.5mm input very much. Even with a TRS, some tracks are played without any mids or otherwise missing parts of the frequency distribution. When I use an adapter and stick it into a 1/4" input, the problem vanishes.

[shufflebeat]

Originally Posted by MigueldeMaria

1. My S1 doesn't operate at a volume less than about 20%. There is no sound at all, then, at that point, it suddenly jumps up to being loud. I can get the volume I want by "fine-tuning" it, but I find this to be very bad design and inconvenient. Is this an S1 thing or maybe just my unit?

Are.you plugging into the XLR or 1/4" jack? Try a DI box with a "XLR to 1/4" TRS jack" adaptor into the Bose instead of XLR, they have different sensitivities.

2. This may be related, but if I'm pumping in some background music and the signal is not quite loud enough, there is no sound. So again, if I'm playing it kind of low, and the track doesn't output that much, it will just cut out when the volume is not high enough. This can be worked-around by fiddling with the volumes on the source and the S1, but it's not that easy to manage.

Don't know about this one but.it might be related to #4.

3. The dispersion is very nice for what I do, background gigs and such, but i have found that it makes it more subject to feedback. I can't gig with it on the ground, even if I'm sitting behind the S1, because I will always get some feedback with my guitar (Fishman Matrix with a mic in it). This is not as bad when I have it on the pole, but it's still not great when I turn up the volume past, say 40% or so. By tweaking my notch, phase, and EQ on the guitar, i can increase the usable volume, but it's still only a fraction of what the unit can do. Has anyone figured out a solution for this?

Causes/solutions for feedback are pretty universal so all the usual approaches.

(4.) This may not be the S1's fault, but my Sansa Clip, an MP3 player, doesn't seem to like the 3.5mm input very much. Even with a TRS, some tracks are played without any mids or otherwise missing parts of the frequency distribution. When I use an adapter and stick it into a 1/4" input, the problem vanishes.

This sounds like a phase cancellation issue. If you have two similar but opposite phase signals and you blend them they cancel each other out (null) and you get silence. Lots of music tracks do similar things which often shows up in the midrange.

Try plugging your Sansa into a Bluetooth transmitter and connect to the Bose that way (but first try a different 1/8" lead just in case).

[MigueldeMaria]

Originally Posted by shufflebeat

Are.you plugging into the XLR or 1/4" jack? Try a DI box with a "XLR to 1/4" TRS jack" adaptor into the Bose instead of XLR, they have different sensitivities.

Thanks--I'll try these!

[capefisherman]

I own two! I loved my first one so much that I bought another. I did try a small but good quality small mixer to expand the plug-in options but found that I could get much better stereo dispersion with two.

FWIW, all my gigs are at a coffee shop/cafe, gallery receptions, private parties, wedding ceremonies, etc. I don't play loud, rowdy bars anymore (thank God!) and the S1's would have trouble with that I think.

The best overall accessory investment related to amplification was my Grace ALiX pre-amp. Pricey but oh so worth it! I can dial in the best possible sound with it. Basically, I would recommend some sort of pre-amp for you S1 to find the optimum sound.

Be sure to connect yours to your computer and go to the Bose site for any updates in the software that may be available. I did this for my 1st generation S1 and the difference in sound was definitely noticeable in a very good way.

Be sure to get your off the floor because somehow it senses what's under it and it tends to be way too bassy - and feedback prone - if it is resting on something like a carpet. FWIW, no matter where mine is placed I always turn the treble to max, and the bass to close to zero.

Between ease of carrying, which is a important factor for me as enter 70th year, battery life (I have don four hour gigs and still had half power) but mostly the wonderful natural sound I can get from mine.

Gene

[Goat Mick]

Originally Posted by MigueldeMaria

I have been using one for about six months now--very convenient, although I do have some issues. Maybe someone can chime in, if it's not too much of a thread-jack?

1. My S1 doesn't operate at a volume less than about 20%. There is no sound at all, then, at that point, it suddenly jumps up to being loud. I can get the volume I want by "fine-tuning" it, but I find this to be very bad design and inconvenient. Is this an S1 thing or maybe just my unit?

I have the same issue with mine, it goes from no volume to TOO DANG LOUD in just a touch of the dial. This can be solved with a preamp or mixer in front of the unit which will give you a lot more control over the volume, but I agree it's a pain to get the levels set properly. I've learned to do it without a preamp/mixer from using the thing so much but it would be nice if the volume was a lot more linear. Also it goes from no volume to clipping in about 1/8 turn of the dial. Even with these issues, the sound you can get from an S1 is really dang good and I'll keep using mine.

[takamineGD93]

I have a standard 50l backpack bought at some wallmart type store.

I love mine for my small jobs and busking.

[JPH]

Thank you everyone for the replies and suggestions. I blew the $160 on the Bose backpack.


gigged with it today. Pretty cool. I need to adjust to the whole Bose approach of "quieter filling the room". Very strange from what I'm used to.

Audience was happy. They enjoyed the music and the sound. So, I'll keep it. Tomorrow I'll take it out again.

[jricc]

Originally Posted by JPH

Thank you everyone for the replies and suggestions. I blew the $160 on the Bose backpack.


gigged with it today. Pretty cool. I need to adjust to the whole Bose approach of "quieter filling the room". Very strange from what I'm used to.

Audience was happy. They enjoyed the music and the sound. So, I'll keep it. Tomorrow I'll take it out again.

That;s great JPH. Glad it worked for you. It really is a good rig

[lkingston]

I just want to mention that the S1 Pro, works really well as a powered stage monitor.

Usually with a column you don’t need it, but if you need to drive it hard for coverage, you can move the column in front of you, and use the S1 Pro as a monitor.

Thus on smaller jobs you can just use the S1 Pro. The 30M will hand quite a bit more by itself. And if you need even more, you can move the 30M in front of you into front of house position and use the S1 as a monitor.

[shufflebeat]

Originally Posted by lkingston

I just want to mention that the S1 Pro, works really well as a powered stage monitor.

On a recent sound-teching job I had a bit of a misunderstanding with the venue and ended up with two monitors for a 5pc folk band, all on mics except for guitar. I had the s1 Pro in the car and one of the band had another. I placed them close together upright at stage front for the singer, accordionist and fiddle/banjo and left the main monitors at the sides for guitar and bodhran.

The band were (unusually) effusive about the monitor sound. Levels were not high but there was plenty of it and the Bose audio quality was much superior to the bigger monitors.

I've done similar folkie gigs since with just 2 s1 pros for monitors, no problems.

[dcopper]

Five years now and the 2 S1s are still my main (and only) audio source for guitar and vocals.
Great product - just wish they had better preamps for the mics.
davidc

[rokdog49]

Originally Posted by dcopper

Five years now and the 2 S1s are still my main (and only) audio source for guitar and vocals.
Great product - just wish they had better preamps for the mics.
davidc

Have you tried any of the recommended solutions on the forum to fix this?