...and a great big Thank You!
After lurking on the forum for several months, I felt I was able to make an informed enough decision on how to set up my home karaoke with the budget I had in mind (which was as low as I could go without sacrificing a decent sound).
I enjoy singing but typically just do it at home with family and friends. We had one of those Magicsing mics and was pretty happy with it but soon realized its limitations. We ran it thru our HT speaker system and it was okay, I guess (didn't know any better then). Next, we got a cavs player because you can sing a lot of songs from a single disc. Load times were a pain in the rear though and I didn't think it was that much better than the Magicsing. Oh well.
I've never been to a Karaoke joint until recently when a manager from work got promoted and was leaving so we decided to throw him a Karaoke going away party. We were able to rent out a room that accommodated all of us (about 20-25 people). Everyone was kinda shy at first so I took the reins, jumped right in and sang Los Lobos' "La Bamba". That got the crowd going and before you know it, everyone started to cue their songs,
! Everyone had a good time and we decided to do another outing, even if it's not a going away party! 
I started thinking, hmmm...I should look into getting a better set-up for home. I started searching around the internet and I found this website. I got curious and followed a few of the threads, especially the ones asking about home karaoke set-up. I didn't realize you can run a karaoke show thru your computer (after setting it up, of course). Long story short, that's what I ended up doing and very happy about doing so. So this is the set-up I have for now:
-2ghz IBM Thinkpad t43p
-Phonic Powerpod 620 Plus/S712 PA
-a pair of Behringer XM8500 mics
-Power Karaoke burner & software to rip the discs I bought
-Siglos Karaoke Player (which I will update to the Pro, hopefully soon)
I know it's not the best out there but this sounds so much better than what I had before and it suits my needs for now. We have a family get together this weekend and I'm hoping to this set-up. I'll let you guys know how it went.
Again, my thanks to all who contribute to this forum. I'm sure that there a lot of guys like me that you've helped but never knew about.
best regards,
-Julius "Dr J"
