Hi,
I just received my new. S1 pro. It's a great speaker, but the center detent on the volume controls drive me crazy. Adjust below the detent and the volume drops drastically. Adjust above and the volume jumps. Has this been a problem for others? Does it get better after some use?
Hi Bob S.
Welcome to the Bose Portable PA Community. I'm glad you've joined us.
Bob S posted:Hi,
I just received my new. S1 pro.
Congratulations.
It's a great speaker, but the center detent on the volume controls drive me crazy. Adjust below the detent and the volume drops drastically. Adjust above and the volume jumps. Has this been a problem for others? Does it get better after some use?
Let's see if we can figure out what is going on.
What are your input sources (microphones, instruments, Bluetooth)? Please tell us in detail, and also - how you are connecting them.
Thanks,
ST
I'm using a Shure Sm58 XLR to channel 1. Channel 2 is my acoustic guitar output from a Red Eye DI - XLR. If I start at center detent on both channels and need to decrease the vocal lets say, when I turn the channel 1 volume control down just off the detent the volume drops too low. Similarly, if I turn the volume up just off the detent the volume jumps up. The detent makes it impossible to control the volume attenuation smoothly. I don't really understand why the detent is a feature on the volume controls. Seems like a flaw.
Hi Bob,
I'm sure ST will be along shortly with his comments, but let me just take a minute to offer my opinion on how it works for me.
The control is designed to handle both mic and line level input signal strength.
Generally speaking, up to the 12:00 position is line level, past 12:00 is mic.
My guitars have onboard preamps and typically I run the S1 control straight up and adjust volume with the guitar onboard controls, or the intensity of my playing.
My mic is a dynamic EV, similar to the Shure SM 58 and typical setting is 3:00, little more or little less depending on room and audience. I work the mic a bit for needed dynamics/volume changes.
If you don't have onboard volume control on your guitar I can see how it might be cumbersome to make volume changes with a preamp on the floor.
Considering your DI is low impedance XLR output, your guitar signal input to the S1 is different than mine. If I have time later, and no one else has done so, I will experiment a bit with a DI here and see if I can come up with some ideas.
O..
Hi Bob,
Here is an excerpt from an article about the S1 Pro.
Volume below and above 12:00 o'clock on volume controls
There is no special processing or split in the way we handle the signals below and above 12:00 o'clock on the volume control.
What you are experiencing is directly related to the input signal. If you have a very low input signal (e.g., microphone or bare piezo pickup), you will need to turn up volume control to hear that signal, compared to a higher input signal (e.g., microphone through a mixer or wireless receiver or a guitar with a built-in preamp).
If you connect a microphone or a guitar to a ToneMatch (or other) mixer, turn the output volume down, connect it to the S1 Pro through a 1/4 inch input, you can get the same behavior as connecting a microphone to the XLR input - very little response until you turn up the volume. The point at which you hear sound will be directly related to the output volume on the mixer. That point is may not be 12:00 o'clock. It will depend on the output of the mixer.
This is from a larger section of the article - S1 Pro Input Gain
ST
I guess I am not making myself clear. I am an audio professional for 40 years and understand gain and levels quite well. My issue with the volume control is this: Going from off (totally counter clockwise) to 11:59 the control works as it should with a smooth increase in volume. As soon as I adjust upward to the 12 o'clock detent, the volume jumps up disproportionately to the amount I turned the knob. Similarly, when I move from 12 to 12:01 the volume jumps up instead of increasing proportional to the turn of the knob. From 12:01 to fully clockwise the control acts normally with a smooth increase in volume as I turn the knob.
This is not an issue if my starting point is 10 o'clock, or 2 o'clock and I need to slightly increase or decrease my volume. But lets say I get to a gig and set both channels to 12 o'clock at the detent. During my sound check I notice the guitar is at a perfect level for the room, but my vocal is a touch hot. I want to slightly decrease my volume. If I just slightly turn the knob counterclockwise off the detent the volume jumps down below where I want it. If I try to slightly increase, the knob pops back into the detent and increases the volume beyond where I want it. There is no in between!
Volume controls should work smoothly from fully off to fully on.. The detent is making it act more like a step attenuator.
I have not noticed any pronounced step, above or below the detent on my Bose S1 Pro @Bob S . I've been using mine for 2 years, so it may have settled in over time. I do tend to leave the ToneMatch switches in the off position. I purposely run microphones hot, as I do not like eating a microphone and that may be why I have not noticed an issue with the detent. I like using a Sennheiser e935, which does not have a pronounced proximity effect.
Thanks Ric! I'll play with it a bit more this week. I may need to work the knobs a bit.
Hi Bob S.
Bob S posted:I guess I am not making myself clear. I am an audio professional for 40 years and understand gain and levels quite well. My issue with the volume control is this: Going from off (totally counter clockwise) to 11:59 the control works as it should with a smooth increase in volume. As soon as I adjust upward to the 12 o'clock detent, the volume jumps up disproportionately to the amount I turned the knob. Similarly, when I move from 12 to 12:01 the volume jumps up instead of increasing proportional to the turn of the knob. From 12:01 to fully clockwise the control acts normally with a smooth increase in volume as I turn the knob.
This is not an issue if my starting point is 10 o'clock, or 2 o'clock and I need to slightly increase or decrease my volume. But lets say I get to a gig and set both channels to 12 o'clock at the detent. During my sound check I notice the guitar is at a perfect level for the room, but my vocal is a touch hot. I want to slightly decrease my volume. If I just slightly turn the knob counterclockwise off the detent the volume jumps down below where I want it. If I try to slightly increase, the knob pops back into the detent and increases the volume beyond where I want it. There is no in between!
Volume controls should work smoothly from fully off to fully on.. The detent is making it act more like a step attenuator.
I had not taken much notice of what you've described - probably because I don't usually end up with turning/moving the volume controls around the center detent. I often have the guitar at 12:00 o'clock (and leave it there) and control the volume on the guitar. Depending on the microphone, the volume is usually above 12:00 o'clock. All that means is; I rarely move back and forth across the center detent.
I spent some time with it this morning to see if I could replicate what you're experiencing. And it's like a gravity-well (if you're into science fiction). That is, as I get close to it, the knob gets pulled in. It's tricky to move slowly into or out of that detent position. If I move the volume knob very slowly, the volume change is pretty consistent, but if I let the knob get pulled into the center, the change seems more abrupt. By that I mean the movement is more like a step than a slope. Similarly, I have to exert a little more effort to get out of the center position and then the knob can turn farther than I intended.
For me, the center detent is a convenient reference when I can't see the controls. It provides haptic feedback to tell me where I am on the dial.
I don't there's a malfunction here but it might take some getting-used-to.
How are you enjoying your S1 Pro otherwise?
ST