Karaoke Forums

Hi everybody, what's up!

My name's Jan and I got into Karaoke while working in Japan and kept it as a hobby. Now and then, my friends and I go out for karaoke. Today, I have discovered your forum searching for information on Japanese karaoke home-systems, e.g. by DAM. But I soon learned that these systems demand high licensing fees, expensive equipment and pretty much focus on professional use.

As a matter of fact, I just like to sing a couple songs now and then at home with friends. I currently have dozens of Japanese songs as MP4 files (video w/ subtitles) put on a USB stick and run through a $50 DVD player w/ karaoke function made by Daewoo (DV-3500H). But the mic levels and volume adjustments are not very good. Actually, the mic inputs tend to produce background noise, which I believe is a quality issue of the Daewoo player. Not that I was expecting to get top results from this newbie-setup
Well, obviously I am looking for ways to improve starting with the karaoke player.

I have read through various topics in this forum, providing advices on home entertainment karaoke systems, but some of them dated back to as far as 2006. I have learned that RJ Tech is not necessarily good and Acesonic is regarded as a decent low-cost alternative player (e.g. DGX-210). The players by VocoPro and RSQ have also received rather positive reviews. Again, I am only focusing on home equipment.

In terms of my preferred list of features (i.e. video codecs support, USB port playback via HDD/flash, front mic adjustment features) I managed to narrow down to two devices: RSQ NK-2000U and VocoPro DVX-890K.
However I could not find any decent reviews on either of them and there is one more thing that gives me a headache: The NK-2000U supports all DVD regions and DivX, XviD & MP4 formats, whereas the DVX-890K only supports DivX. On the other hand, the DVX-890K provides separate volume controls for the two mics (front input) and HDMI output, which I consider a handy feature as well.
Perhaps someone can guide me to a device with the above features combined? Or does anybody use these or have a chance to review any of the two players?
As I am still new to this hobby, in terms of home entertainment, I'd greatly appreciate if you could share your thoughts on this one. Thanks!

Out of the two i'd probably opt for the RSQ simply for the fact that I am not big on VocoPro at all. But the RSQ seems to have some more desireable feature and able to play video files as well.
The mic inputs on either are not going to be great and you will probably find that you aren't going to get that much better sound over your current setup, the mic pre-amps built into players are typically the lowest quality. Most people use an external mixer of some sort even for home use.

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Hi Lonnie,
thanks for your reply!


So your advise is to choose a decent external mixer, rather than buying a new karaoke player. I was hoping the VocoPro and RSQ inputs would do. Though it totally makes sense, since I play the videos from HDD or flash memory and therefore only need some sort of video playback device, i.e. my old Daewoo player.

EDIT: Well, after reading through another bunch of posts on this board I've realized that most people (active in this forum) are either KJs with decent understanding of pro-equipment or Newbies like myself with little understanding of home equipment.
As a matter of fact I did further research on the web, especially the "Karaoke Tutor" forum and came up with a "solution" to my problem, in terms of a setup which makes sense given my requirements, such as room size, karaoke playback format, etc. While everybody has different concepts and liking when it comes to home entertainment karaoke, I hope the following information will be useful, for there are a lot of questions on the net regarding a karaoke home setup, but only few feedback from the person who actually started the topic (not necessarily over here though).

Amplifier: Sony FA30ES (120W+120W @4Ohm); reason: no reason, except that I've been using it for yrs, i.e. saving money
Speakers: Behringer TRUTH B2031P (RMS 75W/Max 150W, 4Ohm); reason: surprisingly good reviews, esp. when used in small room w/ live music, inexpensive
Player: VocoPro DVG-777K; reason: USB-HDD support, digital key control, MP4/DIVX support, far superior functions compared to my earlier player
Microphone: Shure C608; reason: positive reviews, comparably cheap

One member in this forum wrote that it's better to start small, because everybody is going to improve their system step-by-step anyway - that statement seems to be true. Thus, I've found myself satisfied with the above setup, yet it can easily be improved, e.g. including a mixer, changing the amp, etc...