The Karaoke Player

karaoke machines

This year, the Karaoke player was voted the “#1 most irritating invention” in the British Inventors Society poll of 2,500 Brits. “Seeing the karaoke machine at the top of that list made me smile,” admits BIS director Kane Kramer. “When people are singing karaoke they are enjoying themselves, but as a member of the audience you are just watching somebody who can’t perform – and isn’t particularly pleasant to listen to – for as long as you can bear it. It is anti-social. You might have 10 people who want to sing some karaoke, which means 150 people have to suffer it.” Despite the snooty opinion of our overseas cohorts, American Idol has made the karaoke club into a cash cow and spawned an increased demand for at-home karaoke systems.

It seems everyone is claiming to have “the best karaoke player on the market.” With so many contenders, it can be hard to choose. Today, karaoke songs can be played on portable systems, DVD players, CD players, PCs and Playstation consoles. The smart karaoke system consumer should first be honest with him or herself and ask, “What am I going to use this thing for?” If it is for killer karaoke parties, then an all-in-one machine like The Song Station is the ideal choice. This amazing karaoke system has been featured in Rolling Stone Magazine, People Magazine and on NBC, and enjoys high Epinions ratings. Ranging between $207 and $259, the system has 53,000 built-in tracks from around the globe, but also accepts DVDs, special karaoke CDGs, CD+Gs, VCDs and MP3s, and plays all in high-quality Dolby Digital.

Consumers receive two free microphones, a pedestal karaoke song search unit, large speakers and additional amplifier connections. Up to ninety-nine songs can be scheduled, just like at a karaoke club, and sixty favorites can be stored for quick retrieval. This product can be purchased at www.thesongstation.com.

For people who throw a lot of parties and have secret ambitions of pursuing an amateur music career, Numark has been a leader in turntables, speakers and other DJ equipment. In 2006, they released the impressive KMX02 DJ Station, a user friendly, all-in-one karaoke player that boasts features like Key Change, dual karaoke CDG drives, three microphone inputs, tone control, echo effects, cross-faders, video outputs and easy-to-use controls. This karaoke machine can be found at www.numark.com/kmx02 for $449.95 or for $300 at www.audiolines.com.

For kids, the GPX Karaoke Machine can be purchased from Best Buy for just $30 and will play the music, as well as the video (CD+G) and comes with a microphone. Hello Kitty also has a fun pink-and-white karaoke player for $50 that plays karaoke CDs and Barbie has a “Hits 2 Go”CD boombox for $30 or a better quality Emerson Radio Barbie CD+G system for $75, which can all be purchased at www.amazon.com. For the older kids, The Singing Machine SMG-137 Karaoke System is reasonably priced from $45 to $88 and looks more like the traditional karaoke machine, with built-in speakers, two microphone inputs, a top-load CD/CD+G drive and basic balance/echo/volume/auto voice controls.