Tony, what I find so amusing is the ads for Bose.

Nearly all the setups show a single singer/guitarist (which doesn't need stereo, or full freq range, for that matter) or a young lady vocalist playing an electric piano.

When used in a group setting, Bose recommends using a single L1 for each performer, which not only sounds better, but gives each performer a position in the sound field.

An arranger is literally a full band...BIG difference!

I was lucky with my hearing...I was wearing ear protection very early on, as our drummer back then worked for an audiologist and we had custom molded ear protectors at a very good price.

I'm not quite sure I would like someone with moderate to severe hearing damage recommending a sound system to me...I think I'd want someone with very good hearing and experience.

The argument over stereo vs mono will always rage as long as we each seem to hear differently, and work with different size budgets, or setup/tear-down time restraints or different size stages.

I spend so much time making my arranger sound as good as possible, and I'm certainly not going to run in mono, when it is very well known that it causes phase cancellations and my instrument isn't sounding as it it was meant to sound...so, stereo is the only way for me.

I always make sure that my clients know the pitfalls of using mono systems, and try to prevent them from getting any mis-information before they spend their hard earned money on a keyboard amplification system.

This thread will definitely show both sides of the mono/stereo issue, as well as the other results from using one or two Bose systems...and there's nothing wrong with that at all...the well informed buyer is going to be a much happier owner.

Ian