Review: Bose DeltaQ Showmatch

MATCH MAKER

ShowMatch is Bose’s response. It takes RoomMatch’s philosophy and refines it into an everyday arrayable, truckable concert PA system.

ShowMatch comprises three full-range loudspeaker models (5/10/20° vertical) in a compact two-way design, that includes four improved Bose EMB2S compression drivers and two Bose eight-inch neodymium LF devices. Each model ships with two sets of field-changeable horizontal waveguides for narrow or wide pattern control. An additional horizontal waveguide can be purchased separately. To change a waveguide you need to remove the grille and undo four screws. (The waveguides come in two sections, which means you can have asymmetrical horizontal dispersion patterns.) It’s not something you’d do once you’ve arrayed the system but something taken care of in the shed after you’ve mapped the venue in Bose Modeller. In other words, the waveguide options will reward the conscientious operator. As an aside, it would have been great if Bose could make it outwardly obvious which waveguide is installed in an element. Funktion-One colour codes its boxes, perhaps Bose could have some small (coloured?) part of the waveguide protruding from the grille to make the box easy to interrogate.

Removable rigging-guard/handle side caps allow ShowMatch modules to be suitable for both installation and portable applications.

FIT FOR LAUNCH

ShowMatch is a big deal for Bose. Certainly the carefully-choreographed worldwide launch was an impressive thing to behold. Australia was the last leg of a tour that saw Bose take over a venue, bring in a hot live band, and allows sound professionals to hear the system perform without any apparent smoke and mirrors.

Well-regarded Australian sound engineer Anatole Day was engaged to babysit the rig for the Melbourne and Sydney dates. AV Asia Pacific last caught up with Anatole while he was on a Guy Sebastian regional tour. What I like about Anatole is he’s a pragmatist and he trusts his ears and instincts. Anatole is just the kinda pro that Bose is hoping to speak to: he loves mixing on the million dollar rigs whenever he can but will take a new PA as he finds it — he can see past the badge.

The demo was quite impressive. The system comprised seven elements a side and four single 18-inch subs a side in an end-fire configuration. (A front grille-mounted NL4 connector on the sub enables easier wiring for cardioid configurations.)

We were assured the system was set flat, with only some low-Q 4-5kHz gently removed by Anatole to slightly smooth out the rig, which was oversized for the room at Chapel Off Chapel. They’d run the same-sized array at the Sydney event, which was held in a much larger bay at Carriageworks. There Anatole said the top end was spot on, and he only took out a little low mid to offset the room’s natural buildup. So, ‘out of the box’ ShowMatch sounds like a proper line source concert PA.

As I mentioned earlier, the HF units are the heroes. The four EMB2S compression drivers are matched to a Bose proprietary manifold (pictured right). What makes them special is their wide frequency range — from 18kHz all the way down to 300Hz. It’s an impressive feat. Crucially the EMB2S takes care of all the vocal frequencies. And this has been one of Bose’s key design philosophies since the 802: make the vocal the hero, and make it easy for the sound person to lift the vocal out of the mix. The EMB2S is the sound of ShowMatch. Everything rests on its performance and it’s a winner: efficient, loud and still sweet-sounding at lower levels.

WHO’S FIRST?

Bose isn’t the first to market when it comes to preaching the variable dispersion gospel. Some 10 years-plus ago L-Acoustics released Kudo which had/has adjustable dispersion vanes. More recently the variable dispersion cat can be skinned in software, with systems such as EAW’s Anya and Martin’s MLA doing some fancy footwork in DSP to match the rig to the room.

My gut feeling is that the ShowMatch’s DeltaQ variable dispersion smarts (which has been so pivotal to the RoomMatch success) won’t be the ShowMatch dealmaker for Bose — it’s a cool feature, but not one that small to mid level, shoot-from-the-hip, rental companies will be exploiting on most jobs. (That said, ShowMatch’s neat low profile design will ensure it finds its way into plenty of installations where the DeltaQ flexibility will be used to the max.)

So if my surmising is well founded, what’s ShowMatch got going for it? Easy. It’s a properly engineered, well resolved, mid-size line array that’ll take care of a wide range of gigs. Fly it (up to 24 in an array), ground stack it, put it in a constant curvature array (for pseudo line array performance) if you have to, hang it in a conventional J array for that outdoor festival, or get your geek on and design the best DeltaQ array to tame that tricky (or not so tricky) room.

THE APPEAL

Finally, in a market like Australia (small and tribal) the question isn’t necessarily “is the PA any good?”, it’s “who’s the customer?”. I don’t see too many rock ’n’ roll rental companies sticking their necks out to gobble up the first shipment of ShowMatch — until ShowMatch makes it onto technical riders that’s unlikely. But for rental companies that do most of their work on corporate and AV gigs, Bose ShowMatch is a very appealing choice.

And, finally, the real kicker. The price: it’s keen. Interestingly, Bose hasn’t built a road-ready amp. They’re recommending the Powersoft X Series (specifically the X8 Dante model), probably in recognition that Powersoft’s price/performance is hard to beat. It’s always difficult to price a ‘system’ as such (given the myriad permutations) and hard to get an ‘expect to pay’ price on something like this but I’ll let you do the maths on what a RRP module price of ~$5900 might mean to you if you’re ‘in the trade’. Definitely at a price point that gets the cogs turning.