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Today's Bonus:
- Includes CD Player, Microphone
- 2 Microphone Jacks, iPod Jack, Headphone
- Compatible with CD+G, CD-R/RW
- Features Auto Voice Control, Balance Control, Auto Repeat Playback, Song Skip/Search, Charges iPod While it's Docked, Echo Control to Reduce Hollow-Sounding Tracks
- 2-Digit LED Display
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This karaoke machine is everything my 5 and 7 years olds could want. However, I find one advertised feature missing and some simple standard features lacking.iLive as a CD+G karaoke player:
This product does a great job playing CDs or CD+G. It comes with one mic and has an input for a second. It has device controls and a remote control. These controls include a volume, mic volume, and singer volume. The singer volume allows one to turn down the singing on a regular CD (or iPod or any other audio input). The iLive plays music on a mono speaker. There are also audio and video outputs to play music and lyrics on a TV. One disappointment was that the mic did not come through the audio out; it can only be heard through the iLive itself. Another big disappointment is that the iLive has a single mono speaker. It's a great portable player that can run on AC power or batteries, but stereo was created in the 1960s and is a pretty standard feature these days. When I played a couple songs with lyrics on my TV, some of the video was blotchy. That could be attributed to the CD+G disc quality or the iLive player quality.
As a cheap, portable karaoke player I'd give the iLive 3 stars.
iLive as an iPod player:
It plays music and photos or video (through the video output) from the iPod. At this time, iPods do not support a karaoke format. This is an iPod shortcoming, not an iLive shortcoming. What you can do is play your iPod music, turn down the vocals, and sing along on the mic without lyrics. My kids really enjoy this as they have a great song selection to choose from. However, the same shortcomings mono speaker, no mic through the audio output apply. One other advertised feature is actually lacking the unit does not charge the iPod. Lack of this feature makes the iLive a very poor iPod port.
Although cheap and portable, lack of iPod charging capability and false advertise lead to 2 stars as an iPod player.
Because the above functionality is combined into one unit at a low price, I give it 3 stars overall. It's great for kids, but lacking in quality and features.
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I got this karaoke machine on clearance at Target a couple months ago when our Target was remodeling/reorganizing. I gave it to my 8-y-o daughter on Xmas morning.Upon initial set up, my daughter was thrilled. We had one CD+G that was capable of displaying lyrics, a High School Musical Special Edition CD. (*NOTE* The people writing on here to complain they can't figure out how to see the words displayed probably ably don't realize a special CD+G CD is required for this function. iPod units don't have lyric display capabilities at all.) Even though there was quite a loud background buzz coming from the speaker, she was having a good time singing along. About 20 minutes later though, the microphone went kaput. Just plain stopped working for no apparent reason.
There's a 90 day warranty, so I emailed iLive/DPI about the mic not working and asked for a replacement. I got a return email requesting that I fax them my receipt. I faxed it (long distance), along with a summary of my problem. I didn't hear anything back but assumed they'd take a couple weeks to process my new mic and get it in the mail.
Since my daughter was dying to sing, I gave in and bought a generic replacement mic at Target for $10, which worked just fine. But three days later, the CD player part of the machine stopped working too. When we put in a CD, it'd spin and make a grindy sort of noise, but no songs would play and it wouldn't respond to the push of any buttons, "stop" or "pause" or "skip".
At this point, the only part of the machine that worked in originally purchased form was the iPod connection. I emailed iLive again, telling them my problems had escalated to a seriously unacceptable level for a brand new machine. I got the same email back, asking me to fax the receipt. I faxed it again (another long distance charge).
When I hadn't heard anything from iLive customer service after yet another week, I emailed a third time, asking the status of my complaint. Their response was that they checked the past two weeks of faxes and could find no faxes from me. Hm, interesting, considering I had TWO fax confirmations with their fax number sitting right in front of me! I send along a third fax (yes, still long distance).
Finally, last week I got a phone call from customer service. The girl was very nice and polite, but informed me that since I purchased the machine at a discount price it was considered sold 'as is', which constitutes the warranty null and void. I was SO angry! The girl empathetically agrees to talk to her manager, and when she comes back to the phone she acts like I'm so lucky b/c her manager has agreed to offer me a deal they never offer anybody: if I send them a $30 check, they'll send me a new machine.
Are you kidding me??!! Another $30? That's more than it costs to get a new one here at Amazon!
Bottom line: BE WARNED! The idea of this machine is cool in that it's versatile in playing CDs, iPods, and CD+G karaokes, but even when all those things work, that loud buzz persists and it is definitely aggravating after awhile. Purchasing this machine at Amazon's discount price is going to make it "as is" and nullify the warranty as far as iLive is concerned. You will be out of luck.
Yesterday I bought The Singing Machine SMG-137. It works fantastic, no buzz, and I'd highly, highly recommend it over this machine (even though it does not have iPod playing capability).
I'll never buy another iLive product again!!
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I purchased this for my daughters. They love singing to radio Disney and all the other Disney songs.(High school musical,etc) I was very disapointed. It feels very cheap and it had an annoying buzz. I returned this product and purchased a more expensive Karaoke machine. I guess $50 does not buy much today. Good idea with the ipod, however when playing regular songs on ipod, lyrics do not appear on screen.Want iLive iPod Karaoke System - IJ308W Discount?
Before I purchased this item, I too was skeptical, because of some of the other negative reviews. But I have to say, my wife has used this iLive iPod Karaoke System now since December 25, 2008, and we haven't had any issues with it at all. Everything has worked great! Sometimes you just have to go with your gut feeling. I'm glad I did.
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