I just received my F1s in the mail today, it took 10 days with the holiday slowing things down. The UPS guy brought two 812s in the factory box, beat up with tape hanging off the boxes and two inside brown shipping boxes. I was nervous and a little angry. I demanded that the UPS guy stay in place until I opened the boxes to do a visual so I could refuse delivery if I saw a scratch on them (they survived the brutal trip from Nevada to Northern Virginia:-).
On to the setup and sound test; I made the connections as recommended to the sub and then I setup the 812s on top, a breeze and they didn’t seem too tight as others have reported.
Sound test: I have my speakers running through a BBE882i to my Pioneer DDJ-SZ controller. I let the speakers sit for five minutes to ensure the power was stable and then it was on with the volume. I put on an old slow song that has a lot of lows, mids and highs with some singing so I could sit back and listen to how the speakers reproduce sound. I had the gain on the speakers at the center (12 o’clock position) and turned up my mixer volume to about 25% volume mark and I was impressed at how clear these speakers are. The mids are perfect and the highs are just right, not too high. I replayed the same song and this time I cranked it up to what I usually do when I do my mobile sets at half volume to see what these speakers can do. I was really shocked that the bass was nice and deep and no turbulence from the bass port which is an issue with my B2s. The nice thing is, the clipping lights didn’t come on nor did I sense a limiter kicking in and cutting out the bass which is something I don’t want to experience on a pro line speaker at the half way point. I am not sure how the engineers at Bose pulled this off but these are definitely the best sounding 10" subs I have ever heard in any price range.
I tried the second test with the speakers (812s) on tripods and the subs in the center of my setup so I could get bass coupling effect. I turned up the volume and it makes a significant difference. The 812s sound fuller being higher up in the air on tripods and the bass was tighter with the subs side by side. If you go out on a gig and you want the best possible sound, put your subs side by side and the 812s on tripods.
The speakers are very light so the guys my age 50 & over will rejoice that we don’t have to break our backs carrying heavy speakers.
Now for the not so positive: At about 25 feet away, bass from the subs seem to reach their limit (someone else here stated the same thing). I guess this is what happens when you use small drivers but this surely doesn’t happen with my 18" subs which name I won’t mention at the same claimed power output. This test was performed in my basement which is pretty large but when I take them out in a larger room I will see how the bass performs at a distance.
Another thing I see that is a surprise, the power cord is so thin and that surprised me since each amp module is rated at 500 watts continuous power I am guessing. I guess the engineers figured out how to make them very efficient so you don’t need a thicker gauge wire.
Last thing I noticed that concerned me, the rear of the speaker got a little warm, there is no fan inside so I wonder how these speakers will perform at half volume in a real word test inside a club environment.
Overall I give them a 9 out of 10. There is always room for improvement but these speakers are surely impressive. I have a gig next week Saturday, I will report how they performed in our clubhouse.
I noticed all the same , in my first test run. The biggest concern is heat build up. I would like for a rep to explain the difference , signal run to the f1 812 s first, then thru down to the subs. Thanks
Hi DJ Ron,
Thanks for posting your impressions. I’m really interested in what you hear in a larger room. I ran the F1 Subwoofer in an room approximately 8000 square feet and thought that the bass was really good even two thirds the way into the room (perhaps 60 feet away. But I didn’t have a mindset to keep things at the half-way mark.
ST
Hi Badtoad,
Thank you for joining the Forum.
quote:Originally posted by Badtoad:
I noticed all the same , in my first test run. The biggest concern is heat build up. I would like for a rep to explain the difference , signal run to the f1 812 s first, then thru down to the subs. Thanks
I think this depends on what you’re doing. If you have a mixer or recorded music, then you can run to the subwoofer first, and then out to the F1 Model 812(s). All the use cases in the Owners Guide show this routing (F1 Subwoofer first then line-out to F1 Model 812(s)).
–?8T? Please click the picture for more details - Use Case Scenarios ?T8?–
If you have to combine an microphone and an instrument then you can use the two channel mixer in the F1 Model 812 and send the combined output to the F1 Subwoofer.
The other application where you would connect to the F1 Model 812 first is if the source was a relatively low level signal and you wanted to raise the level before routing to the F1 Subwoofer.
Hey Ron… what size party do you think they can handle?
Hi Badtoad,
Here’s a screen shot from page 17 of the F1 Model 812 Owners Guide.
–?8T? Please click the picture for more details ?T8?–
The picture shows the EQ set to FULL RANGE. I’d try it set to WITH SUB and see which sounds best for the music.
The biggest difference that I see in routing the signal through the F1 Model 812 first, is that you can use the mixer section to combine two audio sources before sending the combined signal to the F1 Subwoofer.
Does that help?
ST
Hey Naw-T-Boy; Next Saturday is my test but based on how these speakers sound in my basement I would say about 300 comfortably without overdriving them in a dance music setting. They are not as loud as I thought they would at the settings I used but the sound is so precise and clean. The bass output is perfect and the mid/highs are on point. I run mine with the 812s in full range so that gives the subs some assistance with the 12" drivers running full range for additional bass. All I have to say, you just have to hear them and forget about the spec sheet.
Thank you SHadow Toonz.
Your reviews and insight is helpful in my decision to purchase two F1 812s and two subs.
I followed the Manuel and did audio signal path (recorded music/dj setting) from the Denon mixer XLR cables output to F1 sub to F1 812.
But I didn’t understand , a user could run XLR to the F1 812 to F1 sub.
Just looking to use the Bose at maximum efficiency.
The output on the sub is full range correct? I would rather plug my inputs to the sub and then run the output of sub to the 812’s just to have one less cord running down from the top
Hi Joe,
Yes, the output of the F1 Subwoofer is full range.
Most of the use case scenarios in the F1 documentation show running the source to the F1 Subwoofer, and then running the output to the F1 Model 812.
F1 Use Case Scenarios
Click picture to see more.