Singing Machine SMD-572 Followup
In summary, I absolutely love this karaoke machine. It is - by far - the best machine for the value that I have encountered.
Here are my thoughts:
Setup
It was extremely easy to setup. There were only 6 screws to attach the base to the tower speaker. The main unit easily snaps onto the tower. For sound to come out of the tower, a supplied speaker (red/black) cable needs to be connected from the main unit to the tower.
The first thing I did was play a DVD movie burned onto DVD-R. The movie immediately played and the quality looked great.
Extras
Remote: The remote control with AAA batteries is really nice. It controls the entire unit, even the microphone volume. It's light weight and works well.
Cables: Singing Machine provides all necessary cables for the unit (except s-video). All cables (even the power ac adapter) detach from the unit for easy transport.
Biggest Surprises:
DVD: You can detach the main unit and bring it with you wherever you go. Therefore, with a 7-inch color screen, it becomes a portable DVD player, too. I found this to be a nice extra feature. The movies are DVD quality.
Output To Speaker: As I mentioned in the setup section, the main unit has a speaker output that connects to the tower. This speaker output is your standard red/black speaker cable. Out of curiosity, I connected the main unit to a 70 watts RCA speaker, and it sounded great. So, yet another option (aside from the RCA red/white stereo) for the audio output.
Weight: When the unit is completely assembled, it becomes portable. It's extremely light weight and can easily be moved from one location to another.
Auto Voice Control: This is the feature that works with multi-track karaoke discs that include vocals. As soon as you sing, this feature stops the vocals. I never actually use this feature on any of my other machines, because there's always a half a second lag time between the singer and the karaoke singer's voice. I must say that I will be using this now. Singing Machine really got it right with this feature. It instantly stops the track singer's voice and allows for a flawless transition of vocals. Very nice!
Disappointments:
Microphone: The singing machine microphone does not have much sensitivity. You have to place your lips almost directly onto the microphone and turn the volume all the way up to hear yourself loudly. I have purchased a few karaoke machines from Emerson, Singing Machine, and Memorex. The best included microphone by far are they dynamic mics provided by Memorex.
No Microphone Holders: I really wish I knew why Singing Machine decided to not provide the standard microphone holders. Although, they are usually plastic and do easily brake, they're a great alternative to placing the microphones on the floor after each use. Before the machine arrived, my first thought was perhaps there was not enough room or the screws would damage the tower. However, I noticed that the back of the tower unit has ample space and already has screws with plastic cable holders to keep all cables organized.
Video Files: Since the machine plays DVD, it would have been a nice added feature to include the capability to also play divx, avi, or mpeg files. Nowadays, there are tons of karaoke titles distributed in avi and mpeg format.
Here are my thoughts:
Setup
It was extremely easy to setup. There were only 6 screws to attach the base to the tower speaker. The main unit easily snaps onto the tower. For sound to come out of the tower, a supplied speaker (red/black) cable needs to be connected from the main unit to the tower.
The first thing I did was play a DVD movie burned onto DVD-R. The movie immediately played and the quality looked great.
Extras
Remote: The remote control with AAA batteries is really nice. It controls the entire unit, even the microphone volume. It's light weight and works well.
Cables: Singing Machine provides all necessary cables for the unit (except s-video). All cables (even the power ac adapter) detach from the unit for easy transport.
Biggest Surprises:
DVD: You can detach the main unit and bring it with you wherever you go. Therefore, with a 7-inch color screen, it becomes a portable DVD player, too. I found this to be a nice extra feature. The movies are DVD quality.
Output To Speaker: As I mentioned in the setup section, the main unit has a speaker output that connects to the tower. This speaker output is your standard red/black speaker cable. Out of curiosity, I connected the main unit to a 70 watts RCA speaker, and it sounded great. So, yet another option (aside from the RCA red/white stereo) for the audio output.
Weight: When the unit is completely assembled, it becomes portable. It's extremely light weight and can easily be moved from one location to another.
Auto Voice Control: This is the feature that works with multi-track karaoke discs that include vocals. As soon as you sing, this feature stops the vocals. I never actually use this feature on any of my other machines, because there's always a half a second lag time between the singer and the karaoke singer's voice. I must say that I will be using this now. Singing Machine really got it right with this feature. It instantly stops the track singer's voice and allows for a flawless transition of vocals. Very nice!
Disappointments:
Microphone: The singing machine microphone does not have much sensitivity. You have to place your lips almost directly onto the microphone and turn the volume all the way up to hear yourself loudly. I have purchased a few karaoke machines from Emerson, Singing Machine, and Memorex. The best included microphone by far are they dynamic mics provided by Memorex.
No Microphone Holders: I really wish I knew why Singing Machine decided to not provide the standard microphone holders. Although, they are usually plastic and do easily brake, they're a great alternative to placing the microphones on the floor after each use. Before the machine arrived, my first thought was perhaps there was not enough room or the screws would damage the tower. However, I noticed that the back of the tower unit has ample space and already has screws with plastic cable holders to keep all cables organized.
Video Files: Since the machine plays DVD, it would have been a nice added feature to include the capability to also play divx, avi, or mpeg files. Nowadays, there are tons of karaoke titles distributed in avi and mpeg format.
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