Karaoke USA A-B Box (GF830) - Professional Audio Switcher for Home & Studio Singing, Live Performances & Music Recording

Easy to use. Not a bad priceWhen I first plugged the machine in and turned it on I thought what the heck! It was making a horrible ticking noise. I tried unplugging and plugging it back in, checked the connections, but that didn't work. I was ready to pack it back up and send it back, but then I decided to plug it in somewhere else, and guess what? The ticking noise went away and the system works awesome! I do wish the sound was a little louder but I can probably get that by plugging it in to my TV or Stereo. I haven't tried the record/playback feature or the blue tooth yet but am definitely going to when I get the chance. If you get the ticking noise make sure you are not plugged in by a router, modem or blue-ray DVD player or anything else that might interfere with the karaoke machine. I am very satisfied with my machine for now, hopefully as time goes by it will still be a good investment. Giving a 4 star rating only because I haven't tried all the features yet :)Did a lot of research on karaoke machines and this one seemed to be the best deal in a portable all-in-one systems so I expected a lot of this machine. However, upon turning this machine on I heard a very high pitched whine coming from the built-in speaker. Turning up and down the master volume did effect the whine. To troubleshoot more I turned up and down the volume of the microphones and it had no effect. So I removed the microphones from the machine and the noise stopped.So knowing it was one of the mics I plugged one in at a time and both produced the whine. I had better mic from a sound system and tried that and it also produced the whine. So realizing it was a microphone being plugged into the machine causing it, I figured it had to go back to Amazon for an exchange. I proceeded to pull the mic cords out and turn the machine off and while doing that I accidentally tapped the top of the machine on the plastic with my finger and to my astonishment I heard a popping noise in the speaker. So I repeated the tapping and sure enough, the tapping noise was being amplified and producing sound from the speaker. I went ahead and hooked this up to my television to test and all previous issues, tapping noise, high pitched whine etc..., was also produced with my television speakers. Ugh...Needless to say it was sent back to amazon and I bought something different. This device is indeed made in China and seems cheaply built. It is quite lightweight and feels...well, cheap.I cannot vouch for the actual operation of the unit for use in karaoke because I never got the use it at all. For all I know, it could have been a good unit had it had these strange issues.This is my third Karaoke machine (same model each time).After about 18 months the first one wore out. It had a slight ticking sound whern it was turned on, but otherwise worked well for me. I just used it to practice on, and it did it's job. The second machine had the same ticking sound from the start, but much louder. I took it back to the store immediately and got a refund. The third machine I ordered from Amazon. This one has the same ticking sound, about halfway between the first one and second one as far as loudness. I just decided to live with it. Same with the whirring sound. They all have it. When this one wears out, I'll probably buy individual components to get better quality, but for now the convenience of an all-in-one system works for me (for practice only).Was skeptical at first for it being small and all compact. Sounds good alone, but if you hook it up to your TV and surround sound it is great !!!! I do wish they had a place to put your remote. For that I give it a four star rating. Haven't tried any of the other features it has yet, hoping they will work to my advantage, and this machine will last a long time. Try it if you love Karaoke, if you don't like it you can always send it back. Amazon is great for taking returns back if you don't like what you buy.So far, so good. My daughter who is 9 has watched dvds on this, hooked up her ipod, played cds, and has had a ton of fun. I bought more age appropriate disks for her to karaoke to. We have not tried to hook up to our tv as of yet, will try that and let you know how easy/hard it is. The remote is great, microphones are too as long as they are on the right settings, and it doesn't take up a lot of room. My daughter keeps it on her dresser.The product's main volume is ok when you are using the blue tooth feature. The two CDs of 300 songs is fine if you are 5 years old and only like Christian music. The music included has no songs that you will want to sing as an adult so you are relying on your own to find music to play on this machine. The advertising is bad with this one. Microphones work well but you have to keep them close to your mouth. The screen is ok but have not played videos on it yet as I have to find cds with videos on them. I have been using the Blue tooth feature on my IPAD for singing. For the money would like to have seen a more that what is marketed it will do. A karaoke hit song disk included that you can pick up for 5 dollars would be nice to have included not what was marketed and included in the box.Bought for birthday present