Hello every one
Been a while since I had the need to come on here for help
Here is the scenario
Regular residency gig…every thursday…year and a half same setup
2 l1s vocals, guitar, dobro and mandolin
Practically the same volume level, eq settings etc every night
Always plugged into the same power outlet…always great sound, great compliments from the audience
Well just this Thursday gone that all changed…the sound was not good at all… some of the audience and the venue owner described the sound as Muted, others described the sound as being Quiet
The over all tonal quality was not up to scratch at all
Felt to me as if driving an under powered car against a strong wind…foot to the floor in the gas and going nowhere
All the power and tonal quality was gone
I felt that it was a drop or fluctuation in house voltage though I have not had any trouble in the past in this venue
Venue owner promised to have it checked out for next week
Anybody on here have similar experiences?
Any one with solution to avoid it happening again?
Even more important…question for the technical guys…is it possible to damage the l1s I’d used in this type of situation?
I have only once before experienced a problem where power was the issue…
Several years ago I was asked to play a house party where the entertainment was in a tent/marquee adjoined to the main house.
The power supply was via a long extension cord supplied by the host
Plugged in, power came on as in the blue light on the power stand came on and the T1 powered up…But no sound.
I panicked thinking the worst…very helpful you man who was attending the party went away and arrived back with some form of device which he plugged into the detention cord and then plugged the l1 into it and away we went…no trouble
I didn’t get to ask much information about the device but my understanding was that it was a surge protector for a computer…could this be possible?
Any help, advise experiences shared would be much appreciated
Thanks
Vincent
Hi Vincent,
When the power source is outside the safe operating limits of the L1®, it will stop working. It will then reset itself. Typically what people experience is:
- The blue power light will turn red
- Silence
- The system will take a second or two to reset
- The blue light will come back on
- Sound comes back up gradually
If the issue that triggered this is resolved, then the system continues to operate in the normal way. If the problem persists then the L1® will cycle through the reset process repeatedly until you remedy the problem or turn it off.
From your description of the what happened, I wouldn’t think that the issue was power.
If the systems(s) seem to be operating a less than the expected volume, you want to check that the Cylindrical Radiator®s are seated properly both in the power stand and the connection between the top and bottom sections.
Then double check all your connections and settings.
Are your systems working okay today?
As far as permanent damage… The system should protect itself from inappropriate power. If the power is too far out of range to work, it will immediately go into the cycle I described above, or if the situation is really extreme it may shut down entirely.
If it’s cycling repeatedly then I’d shut it down and find another power source.
ST
Hello ST
Thanks for the reply.
Im afraid none of what you said seems to be relevant to what I experienced.
Two separate systems…two separate musicians…both experiencing the same symptoms at the same time during the same gig on the same stage…what are the chances?
All connections were correct, radiators properly seated…everything worked…just not like normal…same venue, same audience type, same instruments and microphone settings…nothing ever needs to change for over a year and a half now…always great sound except for last Thursday (the night in question) I played 3 solo gigs since then with no problems everything back to normal, alternated the systems on different nights to check both were working properly.
I did think perhaps my ears were playing **** with me, but again whats the chances of the other band member going deaf at the same time!
Several very regular audience members who are very familiar with how good our sound normally is commented on how 'not up to normal standard the sound was…
I will see how next Thursday goes and report back
Thanks again
Vincent
Hi Vincent,
I just double checked with Bose. This doesn’t sound like it’s related to low voltage from the house. If the power is outside the normal operating range there will be no sound, or if the power was okay initially but goes out of range, the system will reset and attempt to restart.
If the voltage is too low, it won’t run at all. There’s no version of things where the L1® will run at a lower output as a result of low power.
So whatever happened, it wasn’t related to power. That’s why I gave you all the detail above; so we could be sure that the issue was not power related.
quote:Originally posted by vincentvaughan:
Two separate systems…two separate musicians…both experiencing the same symptoms at the same time during the same gig on the same stage…what are the chances?
All connections were correct, radiators properly seated…everything worked…just not like normal…same venue, same audience type, same instruments and microphone settings…nothing ever needs to change for over a year and a half now…always great sound except for last Thursday
I think you’re right to be looking for something that was common to the experience shared by all. We’ve eliminated power. So we’re looking for something else in the environment. Background noise? Was there something else going on in the building or outside that could have raised the noise floor?
ST