It was many years ago when Fran and I went to see Uncle Dave Boyd performing in an Italian restaurant, one that was an incredible challenge for any sound system. Dave was using his Bose L1 PAS system, one that he had recently put into service. The restaurant had a horseshoe, circular shaped bar in the middle, and two dining rooms off to each side of the bar, separated by half walls for about 1/3rd of the length of each. It was an extremely large venue, Dave was situated on a small stage just a foot above floor level, the place was packed, and he was just four feet away from the nearest patron.
Fran and I were situated in the west dining room, behind a wall and could not see Dave at all. However, I could hear him performing very well, yet we were able to hold a conversation at normal voice levels. The quality of the music was incredibly crisp, clear and clean. You could clearly hear every instrument of the keyboard, both style and right hand, and the realism was absolutely incredible, yet we were situated more than 70 feet away, partly behind a wall. I was really impressed. That 10-inch sub was more than enough to provide all the bottom end any venue I've attended would require.
I got out of my seat and walked throughout the entire venue, the volume was pretty much equal throughout, yet it was never overpowering and quite comfortable at any location in the entire restaurant. The clincher was when I walked up to the stage while Dave was performing a light rock song and singing. As I approached closer and closer, the volume did not get louder. In fact, I actually placed my ear against the sound column and the volume remained constant. I was hooked, and called Bose the following morning and ordered an identical system.
At the time I was using a pair of Barbetta Sona 32SC powered speakers that I had purchased just 6 months earlier in a music store that was only a few miles from where UD was performing that night. They were a bit step up from the insanely heavy Peavey SP5Gs I was hefting onto poles two years prior to that. As I said earlier, I have owned more than a dozen of the top brand conventional sound systems prior to the Bose. At the time, they all sounded great, but they were all pale in comparison to the Bose.
The only reason I sold my Bose L1 PAS system was the total weight was 92 pounds, about 30 pounds for each segment. When I switched to the Bose L1 Compact, I knew that there would be some loss of overall quality, but in reality, the difference was insignificant because I was performing to smaller audiences, usually just 60 to 100 ppl at most, therefore I didn't really need the power of the PAS system.
Now, I, like DonM, have never experienced problems with phase cancellation when using 2 systems in stereo, and because I was warned this could be a problem, I checked for this at every venue where I performed. I remember Scott Yee talking about this, especially using his Yamaha piano voices, which are heavily, stereo sampled. I created a mono piano voice that many individuals on this and other forums have downloaded, which I felt added a lot more depth to Yamaha's piano voices. Other folks, apparently, agreed.
Now, I know Fran will not purchase anything unless it has the Roland trademark boldly imprinted on it. That night, though, while listening to UD perform, I think he was quite impressed as well, but would never admit it in public.
Later that evening, Fran and I went to see Donny performing for a large crowd in Brick, NJ, where the dancefloor was packed to capacity and he had a pair of monster speakers perched on poles. For those of you that have been here a while, you know that DNJ changed sound systems as frequently as some folks change their socks. The next time I saw him performing, he had a Bose PAS. Six months later, while I was cruising around the country in my van, I saw Don Mason on stage with a Bose PAS. 600 miles to the southeast was where Eddie Shoemaker (Btweengigs) was on stage and wowing his crowds with Bose PAS. When I got back home, I was at my Daughter's church where 4 wall mounted PAS towers filled the 600 seat church with incredible sounding music from the church choir and band.
I guess my point is, line array systems have been around for quite a while and while they were initially used in large theaters, they have, IMHO, really changed the world of small band and OMB performers by providing us with incredibly clear, crisp, wonderful sounds, with outstanding dispersion at lower volumes that we were never able to achieve with our older, conventional sound systems of years past.
Fortunately, I'm now retired and no longer shopping for a sound system. But, if I were, I would do the same thing I did so many years ago. Jump in my van, get the kids to watch the cat, and Carol and I would spend a month driving around the country listening to dozens of Synthzone and PSR Tutorial performers, live and on stage. Hell, I would even drive to New England to hear Tony.
As I said earlier, good luck on whatever you decide upon,
Gary