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Newbie! Karaoke System at home

Your comments, questions, or opinions on any karaoke related hardware.
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Kenshin
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 12:06 pm

Newbie! Karaoke System at home

Post by Kenshin »

Hi Everyone,

I'm new to this forum as well as new to setting up a Karaoke System. I'm mainly setting this up for my wife which loves Karaoke and our friends that would enjoy it when we have them over. I'm pretty tech savvy so able to technically get this all hooked up with some research. I would like help from the gurus out there with getting the ideal system for our home. I know that cost would play a major role in the purchase of the system, but to hopefully make it simple I am not putting that in consideration and will take all your advice to find the system the ideal system for us.

This like is my floor plan as well as the current floor plan (with furniture and tv) which has how the entertainment room is setup.

https://www.amazon.com/clouddrive/share ... _link_copy

Entertainment Room Area = 18'-3" x 12'-11" (as shown in the images)


I'm generally looking for a system that would be overall great in performance for the room size and roughly for a room filled with 5-12 people. I've read a lot into the pros and cons of the components of a Karaoke system so somewhat familiar with all that is involved. You guys would likely ask many questions and I totally invite you to, that will definitely provide me with lots of insight on what I would need for my system.


Please be as elaborate as you want or as broad. Any advice provided would be huge. Thanks in advance!

-Ken


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wiseguy
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Joined: Wed Aug 18, 2004 5:05 pm
Location: WV

Re: Newbie! Karaoke System at home

Post by wiseguy »

Hi Ken... welcome to the forum. There really is nothing that complicated about putting together a good sounding karaoke system. You simply need the proper components and , of course, the better the quality of the components the better the quality of the sound. I like the mixer with powered PA speakers configuration for a home setup. This eliminates the need to match an amplifier with the speakers as the speakers already contain their own perfectly matched amp or amps.

With a room that size, a pair of good quality, 12" woofer, full range PA speakers should do an excellent job. The best mixer will be one with built-in effects, and if you will be using a computer as the player, it should offer USB connectivity. The bi-directional digital USB connection is superior to an analog connection and also allows you to easily send the main mix back to the computer for recording.

Powered speakers come in a wide range of prices. For my money the Yamaha DBR12 speakers are about as good as they get. You might look into the Behringer brand if you're looking for something less expensive. The Yamaha MG10XU is a great little USB capable audio mixer and the built-in effects are high quality.

You'll want to either mount the speakers on the wall on either side of the TV or place them on speaker stands.

Feel free to ask any specific questions.
Kenshin
Posts: 3
Joined: Wed Apr 27, 2016 12:06 pm

Re: Newbie! Karaoke System at home

Post by Kenshin »

@wiseguy -

That's great information, much appreciated. I looked up both (speaker and mixer) items you've referenced and I'm very pleased with the equipment. I have them marked as what I am likely going to get. That definitely crosses off the main items from my list.

I do have more questions if you are able to answer them or anyone else can. I was thinking about UHF wireless microphones (a bit over kill maybe) instead of VHF. Wireless mainly cause I do not want to deal with wires, unless you can tell me if wired is definitely an improvement vs. convenience.

The player - This is my main and very confusing part. I've read about HD players, Disc players, Computer/Software players, All-In-One, etc. I wanted to know what is the big technology everyone is using out there that provides an archive of the best old songs with the ability to store the most newest song content that is easily acquired/downloaded. I MAYBE would like the disc ability in case someone brings something in and they want to use it, but I would like to know what everyone is really using now to upload/download new content.

I'm Vietnamese and would most likely download/input NEW Vietnam Music Videos/Songs =D

What's the latest and greatest!?

Thanks in advance!

-Ken
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wiseguy
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Location: WV

Re: Newbie! Karaoke System at home

Post by wiseguy »

The only difference between comparable quality wired and wireless microphones is the cord ( which can be a nuisance). Likewise, there is little difference between comparable quality UHF and VHF wireless mics in most applications. The advantages of UHF is that it has a much broader frequency range, and typically less traffic, which reduces the chance of radio interference.

Unquestionably, karaoke players have moved in the direction of a computer, software, and song files stored on a hard drive. Even most disc players now being produced have the ability to play songs from a USB hard drive. The hard drive karaoke machines are basically disc players with an internal hard drive. The songs from discs can be imported directly to the internal hard drive from the disc player.

The industry standard computer karaoke file format is MP3+G (a compressed version of CD+G disc song tracks). People rip the songs from their karaoke CD+G discs to MP3+G files and buy individual MP3+G songs online as downloads. Unfortunately, most Vietnamese karaoke, like most other non-English karaoke music, was not released on CD+G discs. The vast majority has been released on DVD and VCD discs, loaded hard drives of certain players, or on chips used by "Magic Microphone" type systems. The bulk of these are in a video format that cannot be converted to the MP3+G format.

Your question about where to download NEW Vietnamese karaoke music is one I don't have an answer for. I don't even know if any new Vietnamese karaoke music is being released. At this time there is only one company releasing new English karaoke music.
Luanplhs
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Joined: Fri May 06, 2016 12:32 am

Re: Newbie! Karaoke System at home

Post by Luanplhs »

I would omit getting karaoke player altogether. If you want Vietnamese music-- YouTube is your best friend--- anything and everything. I use lightning -->hdmi adapter ---> split the audio signal up to route to your mixer ---> video signal to your television. Now you can plug anything in the Lightning connector and you have yourself unlimited access to the newest music.
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wiseguy
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Re: Newbie! Karaoke System at home

Post by wiseguy »

Luanplhs wrote:I would omit getting karaoke player altogether. If you want Vietnamese music-- YouTube is your best friend--- anything and everything. I use lightning -->hdmi adapter ---> split the audio signal up to route to your mixer ---> video signal to your television. Now you can plug anything in the Lightning connector and you have yourself unlimited access to the newest music.
Sounds interesting. Tell us more about the lightning adapter. Will it connect to the HDMI output of a laptop and split the audio and video signal? What output connection types doe it offer? I assume a standard HDMI output for the video, but what about the audio for connecting to a mixer? Analog RCA... digital USB... ? Also, what about key control for the music which is a must have for any good karaoke system? Does your mixer provide digital key control? Is that enough questions? :) Thanks for your input.
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