After last night out I'm going with sound. Everything else you can compensate for.
I returned a visit to another KJ whom I've known for years in her new venue. I told a few regulars about it last Saturday and seven showed along with myself. I heard her selection was a little thin so I brought some CDs for myself and them also.
It just about floored me when I walked in and saw that her sound system was a pair of Mackie 1530s and 1801s!
And she was running them at levels I thought only I got away with. It was exhilarating to say the least to step up to the mic. Those things are so clean!
It was Tuesday so there were practically no other singers there. We sang as much as we wanted.
Crowd? We made our own. Selection? We brought ours. Personality of the host? We didn't care or notice really. For me it was a chance to actually talk to my group and sing some... things I rarely get to do as a host.