Karaoke Forums

So, I was looking into setting up a player in my living room through a PC and a Yamaha 673 AVR with 7.1 Bose surround sound speakers. My system sounds great watching video and the karaoke songs play super. I had mic lag when running the mics into the PC but after some research found out that the lag is the nature of the beast with Windows so I moved all of the PC sound to a small mixer which eliminated the lag. Now after more reading I see alot of posts about warning against running the mics through home theater speakers. Most suggest getting a separate powered speaker for the vocals. Is this something that I need to do? This is simply for a home friends over type setup. If I need to do that can someone suggest an inexpensive speaker to look at?

Thanks for all this info!

In most cases, running your vocals through any home audio will risk damaging your speakers in quite the short time.

check out many local DJ shops and look for a nice or even a pair of "Powered" speakers for your vocals.

Many people I know simply replaced their home audio speakers with "non-powered P.A. type speakers but that also was not good because the the Home audio system would overload causing potential damage to the System and not so the speakers.

I have a Bose lifestyle system here in my home and rather than change to a whole new P.A. style system, I've simply replaced the BOSE cubes with BOSE 151's and connected a small mixer into the Aux port of the receiver and connecting Mics and PC into the mixer channels.

Doing it this way allowed me to keep my "BOSE" sound and not be so harsh with the rest of the system giving me a much greater output for my vocals with less stress on the speakers.

A nice safe approach (tip) keep your BASS EQ around the 10:30 position on all your mic channels just so you don't stress out your SUB.

This is great info. Thanks!

Well, I don't know how true this is, but...........

I have a Home Stereo system (over 20 years old now) that consists of a Kenwood Turntable, a Yamaha twin Tape Deck, and a Yamaha Control Unit (connecting the Tape deck and Turntable to it). I also have a set of Kenwood Speakers (200 watts) that came with the original Kenwood system I had originally purchased prior to the one-piece component breaking down after about 3 years (of which I replaced it with the above components). I have a JVC 3-Tray CDG player with built in Key-Changer which I hooked up to the Yahama Control Unit (and use that as my CD player for the stereo system). I also have the video input of my CDG player hooked up to my Television set.

I have had this set-up since I first got into Karaoke as a hobby (and was building up my library). I live in an Apartment building, so my volume is set at a respectable level. I am perfectly happy with the sound I get from this setup. My CDG Player acts as my mixer too (since all I really need to use on it is the volume control for the Mics, and the Reverb control. I use this setup to sometimes practice at home or when I feel like having some friends over. I also am able to record from my Tape Deck with no problems. I've been set up like this since about 1996, and haven't destroyed my Kenwood Speakers yet.

The whole setup is simplicity at its best... 2 cables (left and right) connecting the CDG Player to the Yamaha Control Unit, and 1 RCA jack connecting the CDG Player to the TV set for the Video. All I do is click INPUT on my TV and set my Control Unit to CD Player, and I have lift-off. Sometimes, it's just the simple things.

Easy peasy lemon squezy...

As long as you aren't cranking up the volume, you can use home speakers without any issues (they won't really sound great as they are typically eq'd/filtered to reduce the midrange naturally which is where the vocals primarily lie). However, if you are like the typical home enthusiast, as the night goes on, the volume tends to creep up a little higher & higher which is where the risk becomes greater at popping a driver! Which is why it's recommended to get something separate for karaoke altogether.

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The answer is NO! You do NOT use home speakers for karaoke. Period. There is nothing more to say.

Thank you.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.

Shoot! For someone who doesn't need to have the ABSOLUTE BEST in everything, it works fine for me. I'm not running a show out of my apartment, and I'm not blasting at full volumes. If I have my stereo volume knob at 3 (settings 0 thru 10), that's already loud. I've gotten a clear sound through my stereo, and I've been perfectly satisfied with my home recordings onto cassette (YES!!! you read that correctly... CASSETTE TAPES).

And I still have VHS tapes that I watch once in a while.

My home system goes to 11.

That sounds familiar?

Do you think I came on a little too strong? Maybe even a little sarcastic?

Well the only thing that matters is if you had a nice Christmas.

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Electro-Voice Evolve 50... Taking Sound To The Next Level.