Ben Morgan-Brown tries a surprisingly affordable personal PA from Bose
Usually associated with high-end, not to say luxury, audio equipment in the professional and domestic spheres, it’s a bit of a surprise to find that the Bose S1 Pro Personal PA system is actually quite affordable and although new to the market is already winning very favourable reviews and plaudits from users. As usual with Bose products, it has clearly been very cleverly and thoroughly thought-out from the start. Compact in size, very light in weight, it reduces setting up time to an absolute minimum. It is eerily simple to use.
On its website, Bose seems to be pitching the S1 as a very high-end Bluetooth speaker, saying: ‘you can even plug in a musical instrument’ but that particular function is so good that we would see it as being one of the S1’s main attractions and its Bluetooth capability, which let’s you connect it wirelessly to a phone or other Bluetooth device, as a handy extra rather than a the main feature. Make no mistake, as Ben’s video demonstrates, the S1 doesn’t just handle a guitar – it handles it very well indeed!
Although graced with fairly minimal control over EQ and reverb, these work well and its built-in auto EQ which adjusts the sound depending on signals from its built-in sensors, means it works very well in any position. Similarly, the ToneMatch facility sets the S1 to a predetermined tone to suit acoustic guitar and/or mic and, again, we found it worked very well and is adjustable to taste.
Whether you used it as a small PA for gigs, as a personal monitor, for entertaining friends, outdoors for playing at parties and BBQs (did we mention it will run for up to 11 hours on its rechargeable battery?) the Bose S1 Pro doesn’t so much live up to its billing as actually exceed it.
Check out how well it handles both Ben’s voice and guitar, consider the price and very good build quality and you can see why this new system from Bose has really impressed us.
Bose S1 Pro Personal PA £575
AR Reviews are recorded in a top quality studio with the finest equipment. To get the best from our reviews and really hear the instruments perform make sure you listen on good quality speakers or headphones!
Dimensions/weight
Speaker:33 cm H x 24.13 cm W x 28.45 cm D (7.1 kg)
Inputs and outputs
2 combo XLR – ¼” inputs
3.5 mm input
Bluetooth input
¼” TRS line output
Additional details
Wireless range up to 9 m (30 ft)
Up to 11 hours of play time using the rechargeable lithium-ion battery
Compatible with Bose Connect app
