Compact Channel 1 Noise

Question: Channel One on the L1 Compact seems noisy.

Response from Craig-at-Bose

First and most importantly, please make sure that you have a microphone connected when you turn up the Channel 1 Volume control. As other members of the community pointed out, when the Channel 1 Volume control is set to 12:00 o'clock the system is extremely loud. Below are some additional details as well as guidelines for adjusting your levels. Please read through my post and let me know if you have any further questions.

We’ve designed the L1 Compact with the goal of providing a simple user interface for both musicians and general purpose users. You will notice there is volume control for each Channel but no overall Master volume. This means that the power amp section is always at full gain. In this configuration the Channel  and Channel 2 volume controls are effectively acting as trim controls. The benefit of a trim control is that you don’t need to significant gain in order to drive the L1 Compact to full output.

The L1 Compact microphone channel is designed to work with a wide range of hand held microphones from popular microphones like a Shure Beta 58A all the way to lower sensitivity microphones like the Sennheiser e8155. As you may know sensitivity can vary between microphones so we’ve elected to include a higher amount of gain on the microphone channel.

In order to maximize signal to noise (when using the L1 Compact Channel One microphone channel) we recommend that you determine the loudest level that is required for your room/application and follow the steps below.

1. Plug in your microphone to Channel 1
2. Turn the L1 Compact Channel 1 Volume / Trim to 9 o’clock
3. Speak into the microphone at your loudest volume and softest volume
4. Adjust the Channel 1 Volume / Trim control to a setting that will work for your loud and soft vocal passages.
5. Remember since this is effectively a trim control (and the master is at full) you don’t need to build additional headroom into the system.
6. Additional tip: In most cases, the Channel 1 Microphone Preamp has more gain than you will ever need, so if you don’t need the extra gain, don’t use it as it will only introduce noise.

Thanks, Craig

Craig-at-Bose on the Forum

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