Karaoke Forums

I'm hoping to take advantage of everyone's technical expertise. I'm looking for a decent sounding dual wireless mic system in the $100-$150 range. Does anyone have any experience with Hisonics, or is there a better system someone could recommend?

Shure makes a nice mic..

My experience is there is nothing good in that price range. Nothing I can help you with, anyway.

The best I have seen, and it won't be as good as the Shure SM58s, is the AKG dual WMS40. You can get those for $320 if you look. Durable, sound at least halfway decent. We use them for drunk mics -- people who care get the SM58s. If we had room for a stage, we would use wired.

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I agree with mckyj57. You're probably going to get crap for that price range. If you have any ears at all, you WILL notice a difference. I have an Audiotechnica Freeway 200 series mic and I can't stand it. It just SOUNDS cheap. I much prefer the Peavey PCX- V12-H that I use on a regular basis.Not the greatest either, but it's infinitely better sounding. Neither of these are dual mic systems, but it does illustrate the quality difference issue.

You can get a very good wired mic for that price range.

Sure SM58 is the standard in most music venues even up to many of the biggest venues. You should be able to buy a single mic for your budget.

With the wireless mics that is on the very cheap side of the price range. You get what you pay for, and the quality may realy not cut it. Even a single (not double) mic at the price range is the absolute bottom of the quality range.

A sm58 costs about $100 for the wired version and $400 for the wireless version.

Thanks for the information. I was hoping to get by on the cheap, but that doesn't look like it's going to happen. The mike is the one thing I have limited control over when the person is singing. It's a little disheartening to see how some people treat equipment when it's in their hands. A $75 mike replacement is a little easier to swallow than a $200 one.

If you don't insist on wireless, get wired SM-58s. You can't break those, and all it takes to make them look great again is a $5.00 grille. I love finding an SM-58 at a gig. I immediately know that the karaoke host cares about their sound. And when you hold one, it feels professional.

It is so disheartening to see the huge number of crappy wireless mics that are out there. You go in to a new karaoke place, and the first thing you see is a crappy plastic wireless mic. It's kind of like the lobby of a hotel having worn linoleum...

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[color=#ffff55]Mickey J.[/color]
Alas for those who never sing, but die with all their music in them.
-- Oliver Wendell Holmes, Sr.

I use Shure SM58's (wired), don't need, or want, wireless. If you put a $400.00 mic in someone's hand, you want it to be someone that knows HOW TO USE IT. More often than not, (depending on the crowd), the singers have no idea how to hold, OR use a mic. With all of the ROCKSTAR cupping, or eating the mic, most of the time I don't think it would make a difference whether you have a $20.00 mic, or a $400.00 mic. If the person grabs the mic around the HEAD, and sings into the back of their HAND, you're not going to make them sound good. So, depending on your crowd, you might want to take those factors into consideration when buying.

Srnitynow

I only used wired mics myself as well. It makes singers actually get up off their stool and sing! Although a few people ask for a chair on stage, most stand up and sing at the front of the venue. They sound better when they are standing up and people can actually figure out who is singing.

I hate it when I am at a karaoke place and you can never tell who is singing until half-way through the song because you have to look all through the crowd to find them off in a corner somewhere sitting down with a beer in their hand!

Cords can be somewhat of a pain, but I know when/if I ever go wireless, everyone is going to want the mic brought to them wherever they are, and then I will have to take it from the previous singer and bring it to the next singer across the room, etc. It is not only a hassle, but it takes away from the performance aspect of the show and it also tends to decrease the quality of the vocals because they are not sitting straight or standing when singing!

Hmm, I've used wireless mics since I started this business and never had a problem of people expecting me to bring the mic to them. I call their name, if they don't come up in a reasonable amount of time I'm on to the next person. That's seems to be plenty of motivation to get them to come up and grab the mic. Some will walk around and sing, most stay on the stage, but I can tell you having the ability to move about in the audience has led to a lot of good times that wouldn't have been possible with wired mics.

srnitynow makes a dubious point about any crappy mic being good enough for Karaoke. See this is the attitude I hate that surrounds Karaoke. I want to be capable of providing the best quality I can when I do get the singers that know how to sing, how to hold a mic and don't play other stupid singer tricks. I educate my singers on why they don't want to cup the mic. Some listen, some don't, some have learned from me to use that as a technique for effect. But at the end of the day, I want to have the control and capability that quality equipment offers, not be stuck sounding like crap even when the singer is up to par. You'll have to make that decision for yourself but in the pricerange mentioned in the OP, if you go wireless you will get junk.

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DJ Tony
Let It Rip Karaoke

HERE GOES ..... I've been using the Nady DKW Duo set VHF which you can purchase for about $50. I can tell you this ..They are a decent sounding microphone that in most applications will satisfy your needs. They are VHF and the microphones have a plasticky feel to them. But I use them week after week at my shows without a problem. YOU TRY them and then if you're not satifies you can return them.
I'll bet you LOVE them !!!!
http://pro-audio.musiciansfriend.com/pr ... sku=277405
They are not a $300 SHURE system ..but then again THATS NOT WHAT YOU ASKED FOR !!!!

Yoou can always check with your local music stores to see if any rental units are for sale.

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You can be strange but not a stranger

You can always offer singers a choice of cheap cordless mics or good wired ones. Most singers will want the cordless, but not all. It's as simple as putting both kinds out and letting them pick up whatever mics they want.

I use cheap Vocopro UHF 5800 wireless for karaoke. Singers love them. I also have Heil PR20 & PR22, Sennheiser e835, and Shure SM58 vocal mics. None of the corded mics have gotten me as many compliments as the cheap cordless. Semi-professional, bar-band singers do appreciate having a choice though; and they generally love the Heil mics, even though most have never used them before and are already familiar with the SM58 and e835.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

The hisonics are junk. I have the UHF 49 channel pair. To run the mics on separate channels requires the use of two xlr cables. Ok but the signal out of the xlrs is an extremely high gain. No volume or board gain adjustmen would correct it. Using 1/4" connections feeds both mics into one cable so they are no longer idependant into the board. Buttons on mics need multiple wraps of tape to keep singers from muting/changing channel/changing frequency. They crackle on highs and are naturally very bright. We now use them for talk over only. Wired SM58 for main mic has not met with any frowns but we do keep a wireless sm58 for the better entertainers.
Note also on the hisonics, there are several identical brands with same product.
If you must have wireless the A/T freeway series can be picked up on ebay cheap. They're no SM58 but not bad if you can manage a vhf signal

A -20dB inline pad would take care of this. I realize you are just giving a list of reasons why those mics suck (and no doubt they do) but if you encounter similar problems in the future, there is often a simple solution.

I have a Behringer DDM4000 "DJ mixer" with an extremely hot mic input. With the mic gain turned down all the way, I still had to hold the mic a good 6" away from my mouth to speak without totally over-powering any music that was playing, and I run the music inputs just below clip. A -20dB pad fixes it handily.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

Letitrip, if you're going to quote me, fine, but I don't like words being put in my mouth. I didn't say that cheap mics are good enough for KARAOKE. I said, it doesn't make any difference WHAT mic you have, $20.00, or $400.00, if the person singing is going to CUP the head of the mic, and sing into the back of his hand, and in addition to that, PROBABLY have the mic a foot and a half from his mouth, and on the side of his head somewhere. I also said that I PROViDE QUALITY MICS for my singers Shure SM58's (wired). I also said that it DEPENDS ON THE CROWD you have. PERSONALLY, IF I had a crowd like I described, (which I don't), I WOULDN'T worry about the mics, because it WON'T make any difference. Thank You.

Srnitynow

Plus if one in the unlikely event DOES happen to break, you send it back to Shure & get a new replacement for about half the cost of a new one. My SM58's have been going strong for 15+ years now, they've been dropped, swung, flung & even slammed a couple times - still work great. As said replace the mesh screen every so often & they look new again.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!

I started singing Karaoke a couple of years ago and have graduated to doing shows where I am singing for money for 3-4 hours. I happened to try a wired SM58 recently and it made me sound GREAT so I bought a couple. I like them better than my Sennheiser e835 mics. The Sennheisers are good, but I prefer the SM58.

As far as CHEAP wireless microphones go you will be hard pressed to find a better cheap wireless than the Nady DKW Duo. They aren't as good as a Shure SM58 wireless or an EV RE2 wireless, but they only cost $50 for a base and a pair of transmitters. If your speakers aren't behind the singers you will be fine as far as feedback. The Nadys sound fine. They aren't as sensitive as better quality/more expensive wireless mics, but IMO they're good enough for Karaoke. I've used them MANY times for my singing shows and they're fine.

The Nadys go a long time on a 9V battery and I've bought some rechargeable 9V batteries off ebay that work just fine for around $5-$6 dollars each.

Since the wired SM58 makes me sound soooooo good I have been using them instead of the wireless DKW Duo lately. Eventually I'll buy a wireless Shure SM58, it's worth it for me as a paid singer, but right now I just don't have the money. For hosting, the Nady DKW Duo is the perfect inexpensive wireless Karaoke microphone system. They sound just fine. You really don't need anything better. That's my story and I'm stickin' to it.

Props to you for being one of the few singers who will actually spend money on anything. Guitar players buy guitars and backline. Drummers buy buckets and fancy cloth and sticks. 90% of singers I know do not own a microphone, yet they still expect the sound provider to supply them with the mic they want. And these singers usually get paid as much money as the other band members, who have a lot invested in their instruments. That's so aggravating.

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Jeff Wheeler, moonlight DJ/KJ

I agree to a point. When I run sound I always plan on bringing mics for each singer - it's kind of expected from the sound guy IMO. I wouldn't expect the drummer to supply the drum mics (although some have brought in preferred kick mics) & gates.
Occasionally did have a singer that would bring their own in & their own effects system with a midi controlled foot pedal system which was nice for me so I didn't have to worry about those special effects.

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LIKE Lonman on Facebook - Lonman Productions Karaoke & my main site via my profile!