Karaoke Forums

I am trying to get a karaoke system for home use. Seems there are 2 options:

Options 1: buy a PA system which includes mixer/amp and speakers
Options 2: buy a mixer and a home theater system(use its amp and speakers)

Of couse I will buy microphone and DVD player separately. I had the impression that option 1 will give me better singing experience, is that true? Can someone shed some light on this?

Thank you.

It is all personal opinion, and both "work."

IF you want to sound like it does at the karaoke bar or a live music show/concert, you want a PA system. This is also going to give you much more power to the system and more flxibility for adding on additional components and upgrading later to bigger, better, crisper sound as far as your budget allows.

If you go the home theater route, you are franking going to save a decent amount of money. However, the singing is going to sound very "tiny" in the sound spectrum and the music just won't have much "uhmph" to it. If you intend on singing at lower volumes and don't really care about the quality of your sound (the home theater route will certainly be of ample quality, just nothing great and nothing you can do to make it better), then there is nothing wrong with a HT system for home use. If you want to go this route, you may even consider skipping the Home Theater receiver altogether and just buying and all-in-one player and hooking it up directly to your TV. This will run you about $100-200 and you'll get about the quality of sound that you get from a small boombox (getting a receiver and nice HT speakers will boost the music quality, but isn't going to do much for the vocals.).

If you need help picking out a PA system, just let us know how much you have to spend and we'll make sure you get the best out there for your $$$. If you want to got the HT route, there seem to be some peeps with experience there that could probably help you decide as well.

Hope that helps!!

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C Mc
KJ, FL

I plan to spend about $400.

In my other thread
http://www.karaoke-forum.com/viewtopic.php?t=6180
You have already given me excellent suggestions.

But I am a little intimidated by the terminologies of PA system. For example, I don't see any RCA connectors on the mixer/amp which is very common on home theaters. How am I supposed to connect my laptop or DVD player's audio output to the mixer/amp?

Radio Shack has cables that can connect anything to anything. You must first know that the connector on each end is then go to a radio shack, and buy it.

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I'm Not Dead yet...... But every day Im getting Closer !

If there are not RCA inputs on the mixing amp, Radio shack does sell RCA to 1/4" adapters that convert the input seemlessly. This is how I hooked up my player when I first started karaoke and had no problems at all.

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C Mc
KJ, FL

pretty common to use an adapter.  My Peavey powered mixer only has one channel for RCA jacks, so all it took was a RCA to 1/4'' adapter, as others have mentioned.  Not a big deal.

Does Roll's or a comparable company offer an A/B-DI box where I'd have the option of going into PA, AND/OR Denon DTS Home system ?

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Kappy your're like me we will never get hooked up and my home entertainment system has been been pirated for parts more necessary in karaoke stuff... I do have an old Sony Digital Delayed Dolby Surround Acoustic Controlled Amplifier with home made speakers that I have used for karaoke in basements garages and barns....

What is A/B-DI box ?

Exactly Karyoker,  I've got an analog studio of components I never figured out how, or had interest in learning how to hook to one-another for fear of an explosion.  Yet in you're case, you know what you're doing.. I've got my Reel to reel, hooked to my Tascam which is hooked to my Denon surround, Yet nothing in the studio is wired for direct..A few feet away, the synth stuff hooked to a keyboard mixer, running into a cheap PA 6 channel head... and the sequencing stuff standing alone not wired to anything except the PA mixer....and on another side the guitar stuff standing alone with a few Shure 57's and 58's... I really have nothing interfaced..... Nothing attached to any of the midi ports on anything....Those things might as well have "Danger Stay Away, High Voltage" signs on them... I really am a technophobe....Yet in your case Karyoker, this is your strong point....You are good with this stuff....Yet I suppose there are other things we'd both rather be doing at this point (besides putting our teeth in, and heading to the 12th floor of course)..

I have LOADS of stuff hooked to the Denon 3600 DTS receiver, and what get's me is it's usually only a number of days til I must unhook everything, and carry the D@#& thing back for repair.. I never did tell you about my last great accomplishment...  Neighbor's were away, so I cranked the receiver, and played along with some Dire Straits stuff....All of a sudden sparks started shooting all over the place and their was a huge cloud of smoke.... Naturally being the tech expert I am, I said to myself, "Dang...solid state crap can spark and smoke too?"..Turns out an old amp tech I used to use came over, and said...."Did anyone ever show you the correct way to splice speaker wire so it doesn't arc at the speakers?".. Tech just said, "Kappy, you might not want to make a habit of blowing up this type thing, it releases PVC (or something carcinogenic) in the air". Always seems there's a downside to the stuff I can do well. A few months back I was soldering a part on a small TV...Thing ran into some problems...A tech said, "Did you use a grounded soldering iron",  to that I responded, "Huh?"


Anyway, A good time was had by all  :(

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

Ok, maybe I'm missing something or ignorant or both.  

Forgetting investment for minute, I figure that a good-quality HT system "could" sound just as good as a PA system assuming a few things-- good quality AMP, good quality speakers.  As noted, HT system would certainly have double purpose.

With a PA system, it would seem one it would be pretty much single purpose -- e.g. just playing music and no surround (e.g. 5.1 DTC/Dolby etc.)  although I'm sure with enuf extra equipment etc. I guess you could turn a pa system into a surround system-- e.g. more amps, decoder etc.  but that would seem more of a kludge.  for that matter, would you want pa speakers in your living room?

From some of the posts I've seen on some PA equipment here, the freq. response didn't seem as good as what might get for comparable price of home speakers.  although I presume PA/instrument Amp systems are geared specifically for live vocal and instrument sounds.  Did notice though on many PA speakers have good size woofers whereas comparably priced home speakers may have smaller woofer sizes.  

Certainly I think there would be some advantages to the PA setup as that whole thing is meant to be moved plus may be more flexiblity with inputs and eq settings.
so it would be a bit of pain plus riskier with a HT setup if one wanted to move it around alot (e.g. to do gigs).

Not trying to stir up controversy-- just looking at both sides and maybe learn something along the way from folks around here who may know better.

In the end, it comes down to "requirements" of what one ultimately wants to do with the equipment and expectations of sound quality, flexibility vs. investment

oops-- just noted something in original post.  

If given choice --

Packaged HT system - amp, speakers in one box  VS
pa system

I'd picke the PA system.  I've never been too impressed with the all-in-one home theater packages.  They're ok for the price but not all that great in the quality dept.

lastly-- I'd suggest listening to them BOTH in a good setting to get a flavor of what they'll sound like.  Of source it'll sound different when you get home...accoustics and all.

A couple of cases of Bud Light would work  to get everything going.  3 or 4 beers to to hook everything up, a couple to tune everything inc the guitars, then we would drink and jam The last 3 beers we would probably blowing everything up, spillage and such...In cases such as that I dont like hauling up and down the stairs my good stuff.  In a basement one can hang cow hides on the walls and trim the acoustics anyway....That last statement is truer than you think in a studio or closed environment acoustics are sometimes more important than the system....

hey-- I'd wanna party with you  8-)

I could actually do that in my basement-- challenge is getting enuf of friends and family to do it with me.  seems I'm the only one who really gets into this even tho my kids both sing way better than me and yet, they don't really like karaoke-- they're into theater, jazz band etc.

Yep, even placement of stereo speakers,  Few realize sound quality loss isn't because of their system, but similarly they don't know how to place their speakers given their room setting.  Too bad I gave away my cowhide hanging rugs, and bear rugs... They ended up going around the time the Peter Max blacklight velveteen mysticism posters went.. Now no-way will I pay the money those acoustic soundproofing panels cost... Cheaper to tack the egg cartons back up. or hang old quilts. I've got carpeting behind my speakers to dampen their corner positioning, and help eliminate bounce.

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Northeast United States runner up for the "Singing Hall of Shame".

I posted this in the Technical forum las week it may apply in your case as well.

I put together a system for my wife for Christmas. I was gonna use my custom built theater speakers (comparable to 800-1000 set).  After reading this forum, I decided not  too and I'm VERY GLAD for that. I really don't think they could take the beating for very long.

I got a Fender Squier 4 PA system ( the mic that comes with the PA isn't very good though) and an RSQ MK22 mentioned by an earlier poster.
For home use in my 26x16 room it works great!! The RSQ is a great player with key control and loads music very quickly. It has all the DVD features that you could ever want as well. ( it's used strictly for karaoke here). Feature that I like is that nearly all settings/adjustments can be done with or without the remote.

My wife sings well and has let loose a few times, the system handles it very easily. My stereo speakers would have been destroyed by now. Good luck

Ken

May I ask where did you buy the PA system and the RSQ MK22 player?

I got the RSQ MK22 from here.
http://cgi.ebay.ca/RSQ-MK-22-PROFESSION ... dZViewItem

I don't have the link for the PA system. but a google search for Fender Squire 4 will get you lots of results. Most places have similar prices but check the shipping costs. Mine had free shipping. Good luck

Ken