Who hasn't dreamed of being on stage in front to of thousands of screaming fans as you are singing or performing your latest hit from your record-breaking new album?

It's precisely these dreams that have given birth to the wildly popular hobby that will make the most inebriated of us singing all night and DD's cringe at our disgusting screeches that are supposed to pass for star quality vocals...

Karaoke is actually a Japanese words that means “empty orchestra”. I assume the 'empty' part has reference to the lack of voice on the audio track so that the amateur can become the lead singer.

Karaoke combines the funnest and most embarrassing qualities of performing into a non-stop entertainment machine. There are a ton of karaoke sound systems on the market now and many selling like gangbusters, however you should do your research before going for a system.

One of the best systems around is the Singing Machine STVG-999. It comes with tower speakers a camera, monitor and radio.

I was very excited to get it. There are many features that other karaoke machines don't have like the  AVC (Audio Voice Control). If you turn on the AVC with any regular CD it will automatically diminish the lead vocals so you can become the lead singer. Although it doesn't completely remove the vocals its does make it quiet enough for you take the lead and it often sounds like you have some good backup vocals:) The best part is you can use any CD you want and they don't have to be Cd's made especially for Karaoke.

With this karaoke sound system you can use there different types of CD's: Demonstration cd's, regular cd's and CDG's.

One of my favorite features on this system is the ability it has to change the key of the music so you can find a range that fits you best. So often I find that songs are just out of range because i'm more of a bass and instead of being really fun to sing it just becomes painful. No Bueno. There are buttons that will make the music go either sharp or flat and you can adjust to your hearts content!

The speakers deliver pretty good sound quality especially for a karaoke sound system (I usually don't expect much) and they're slender enough to store or take just about anywhere you want to go.

There are a few drawbacks to this model.

The camera that comes with the machine isn't the most flexible around. You basically have to stay in stationary position if you want to get  decent video recording of yourself projected onto the screen. There's no zoom and the lens angle is very narrow. So like I said its very restricted.

To sum up I was pleasantly surprised at the quality of this Karaoke sound system. Typically you'll have to go with expensive sound equipment to get any quality whatsoever but this system is a great compromise especially for the price they're offering. Also it thoroughly beats out anything else on the market because honestly everything else is made for pre-teens and are cheaply made.