QuestionI am starting a karaoke business and am shopping for mixers and speakers. Since I'm just starting out can you sugest a good combo cheap? Should I spend more money on the mixer or the speakers. Are the # of watts important on the mixer as well as the speakers. Just kinda confused how that all works together. By the way my karaoke system is computer bases, don't know if that makes a difference.
Thank you
AnswerI don't do equipment recommendations. Why? Because there are so many subjective factors and every buyer has different needs and expectations.
Fundamental Principles to remember for your buying experience are:
- Loudspeakers are always the weakest link. One should spend the most amount of time and effort researching, listening and evaluating the speaker choice.
- Power amplifiers are "nearly perfect" in performance when compared with sound quality of loudspeakers. The power of the system amplifiers should be a little more than the power ratings of the speaker system.
- Impedance matching and speaker sensitivity are the most important parameters to obey.
- Mixer should be selected on the basis of what you intend to do with it; number of inputs, kind and type of mics you are going to be using, ease of switching around between dvd, lp, etc.
- Portability or moveability and flexibility is important if you are going from place to place.
- Karoake is unique and sound quality and style is important. You should visit many, many Karaoke venues til you know for sure what is hot and what is not. Karaoke is native to Japan and Asiatic countries; they own the business and other countries of the world follow the models in Japan. Google around to see what kinds of equipment they are using. It will be important to know what is going on in the trade and for your market area.
You might want to drop in to a Sam Ash music store and talk with a few of their sales people. They are very knowledgeable and can offer some serious guidance. There are lots of online places to check out, too. Just google around and you will find tons of choices. Here is one example:
http://www.cheapkaraoke.com/
You might want to take a look through craigslist for used equipment. Get one that is cheap and use it for starters until you have a better feel for what you need when the business actually gets going. Then you can sell or trade off the starter system and move up to something that is more suitable or needed if the business takes off.
The power requirements for your speakers and amplifier are determined mostly by the size of the hall or venue and the number of people in the room AND the ambient noise/crowd level. If it is in a restaurant type setting with lots of background crowd noise and high ceilings you will need big power and high output speakers. If in a small venue with small crowd and small room you can by with even a 10w system - as opposed to a 1000w system that may be required for a big place.
As a very broad rule of thumb you will need 100w system for 25 audience size; 1000w system for 100 audience size.
Sorry to go on so long. Let me know if there is more to discuss. Any further questions, just let me know.
