I was talking with a guy today that scene my van in a parking lot we got to talking and it sounds like he has a theater most would be envious of. We'll see when i get to see it but mac amps and Avantgarde Duos.

His last integrator went out of business and i just happened to be at the right place at the right time hes been looking for someone that can service a RTI T4/XP8.

But his main thing is he wants to integrate a karaoke machine into the system so his wife and daughters could have fun while the daughter is having her friends over. none the less he needs a good machine and not one that comes out at christmas time :) cant blame him hooking that up next to a system like that, is there a nice permanant one that could go in the rack?

Did a google search but nothing came up, are these non existent? i want to be prepaired with prices so i can just get his CC over the phone and bring it out when i service the T4

TIA

actually just found this one, looks pretty cool and rack mountable.

[Link: acekaraoke.com]

anyone have experience with this?

These are pretty good.

[Link: cavsusa.com]

I have plenty of experience with Acesonic. As a standalone, physical media-only player (like the one you linked), they fit the bill fine and perform admirably.

If you are looking for hard disk storage, I would strongly recommend going with a real computer solution, or possibly even an iDevice. I guarantee you that a client will find it easier to use than the Acesonic -- somewhat counter-intuitively, as you might think a standalone device would be simpler. But adding new media, setting the queue, searching for songs -- you end up wishing you had an internet connection, a search box, a mouse, and a keyboard. Trust me.

IMHO, avoid integrating karaoke to AV at all cost.

Down here in Houston, I've been called to see total disaster caused by those add on Karaoke pieces.  Consumer end AV gears are not designed to handle those microphone input.  I do not know how to explain this.  But I saw speaker tweeter dirvers got busted, AVR got clipped....

Best way to deal with is total separate Karaoke system with its own speakers, but you can share the display.

Link to place that you can see different gears/options on karaoke needs. [Link: phonglekaraoke.com]

thanks guys!

Frog, are their any apps that support this? i could see how the acesonic would get confusing.

drewski, that piece looks cool too!



wow, you know i didn't even think about that. looking from the commercial side into the resi world it makes total sense what can happen to the consumer gear. There is no way in hell ill be responsible for the mac gear and adventgarde should something happen.

He would probably prefer a separate system anyway away from his prized speakers, perhaps even going about this from a commercial standpoint with a simple crown CDi and some JBL's. that way i can use the built in dsp to help with any clipping or feed back that will happen.

Yeah please don't do it. I have a client with a pair of monitor audio pl300 and parasound halo separates...every time I'm over there I see some karaoke thing sitting in the corner of the room and just know the little Bieber wanna-be is plugging in when nobody is watching. Not looking forward to shipping those speakers out for repair.

Yikes! Good thing they are cheap speakers.....

Yes you do have to be careful! We have them hooked up to a Denon 4310 and Monitor GS60's and haven't had a problem. What we did was set the volume to a fixed point and disable the control to the room whenever they selected that source. That way the speakers won't see a signal that is too hot.

Wait until somebody drops a microphone.

Is that a microphone in your pocket or are you just happy to see me.......

Agree with the others about integrating it in to a theater-type system. We have done it, but it never sounds that good. And from what I understand AVRs aren't designed to handle microphone level. Have to do more research on this, as I have a client now who is dying for an upgrade (her system goes through a standard Denon AVR), but really wants to keep the in-ceiling speaker vibe.

As to your question, I have played around a bit with "Karaoke Anywhere" on iOS and it seems pretty cool. Haven't done too much thinking about integrating it, but I imagine that one of these: [Link: store.apple.com] plus a long enough HDMI cable that you plug in to when you want to rock out would fit the bill well.

compressor limiter is the answer

If a limiter is used for the Karaoke, tweeters don't need to die. Most Karaoke units use RCA audio outs and the level is usually fine for most consumer AV gear, as long as the levels are set correctly, the signal is limited (using a limiter, the receiver's max level setting or on the Karaoke unit, itself) and the singers don't shout into the mic.

However, using small-ish PA or commercial speakers on Speakers B isn't a bad idea.

What if any, karaoke software would work best? what do you mean idevice?

At the bar I use a laptop (or rack mount a pc) with audio in to a Yamaha mixer and VGA to an audioauthority VGA to component scaler to feed the televisions. I use KJams software ($100) and subscribe to tricersoft and chartbuster ($99) which gives me approximately 70,000 songs to pick from. No physical media.

For mics use Shure ULXp4 wireless receivers (rack mount side by side 1u) and Shure SM58 wireless mics.

Behringer has some relatively inexpensive rack mount mixers. A mixer with effects is a must for the all important chorus reverb and karaoke echo effects.

Mixers with iPad control apps are becoming more common..

Use wireless keyboard to control kjams. Kjams also has a built in webserver for integration.