Rhythm section backline4/12/2023 All this had to be assembled at the gig, sort of like an erector set, but he figured it was worth it. And there was a square base-stand for the line array. It also included a 400w/ch stereo amp, and equalizer and a crossover in a plastic rack-case. He got approval from the company and built a system. Radio speakers for amplified music? But he figured if that little 2-driver radio would play pretty loud with high fidelity sound for a living room full of people, then 32 of them in a line array with mutual coupling to help out the low end would probably be pretty impressive. Now this wasn’t what you’d call a rock and roll instinct. The most intuitive choice he says he made was to use the little drivers from the Bose Wave Radio. Cliff figured this would be fine for his own use as a keyboard and voice system. It broke apart in the middle using a pair of plates to hold the two sections together and didn’t have a bass system as it was designed to go down to about 90Hz. The first usable prototype Cliff landed on (the one Cliff is leaning on above) was 8’ tall and had a floor footprint of about 6” across and 7” deep. This probably sound really Fred Flintstone but it was pretty easy. I also had to bolt it down (with the drill) to a square wood base. I assembled it at the gig and brought a portable electric drill with to fasten everything together. It’s about 48” high and I used two sections held together with steel plates. To Joe’s left is the final L1 line array, the skinniest of all.Ĭliff is leaning on the actual (dark grey) prototype that I took out to shows. Notice how much skinnier the line array became when it only had to go down to 200 Hz or so. Right in front of Cliff is a wooden pre-proto that led to the MA12 and L1, when we knew it was best to have a bass system. We actually used MA12’s in our 2nd generation L1 prototype system. It gained fast acceptance as an installed speaker that was easy to design with. This design made it into the Bose Pro product line years before the L1 was introduced. The white array to Cliff's right in the picture (stage left) is a white version of the MA12. This system went down to about 90Hz but was “fat” in comparison to the final L1 because of the low end requirement. Drivers are stock ones right out of the Bose Wave Radio. It’s actually all put together from folded-up aluminum with PEM nuts for connecting the drivers to the enclosures, a hold-over from the original US Sound/Panaray LT lightweight designs. The aluminum one is the very original speaker system for this project. Here’s a photo with all the our line array prototypes taken years after the moment of invention.
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