Which active starter speakers to get for home karaoke ?

Small 10″ PA speakers will do. You get what you pay for, so I’d stay away from the el cheapo brands. Rather get a set of used high(er) end ones.

Better still are the 2.1 systems that have been out for a couple of years. Small sub (like 10″) with two satellites that give good quality sound in volumes that you dont expect from this form factor. Easy to transport, easy to store, little space needed due to small footprint. LD systems Dave and HK Audio Lucas Nano series were the first but others have followed suit since. While not super cheap, definitely great value for money.

Yeah, not a big fan of Behringer myself, although I heard some 8″ active ones that were – sort of – ok. It’s – unfortunately imho – mostly hit or miss with Behringer, they have some stuff that just works at a wonderful price, but a lot of stuff that only works when you just buy it but falls apart after a while (up to and including the 32-channel X32 mixers). We have readers that love their Behringer gear, but a lot of people that had bad experiences.

I would spend the same money on a couple of used high(er) end brands. Again, just me.

Perhaps (and I would actually like to write that in CAPS) you can’t hear the difference with the budget models from Mackie and the likes.

But I can tell you with 200% certainty, that you can and will hear a difference between Behringer (regardless what model) and higher end Mackies, RCFs, Turbosounds (pre-Behringer), Yamahas, etx. when you pit them against each other in A/B comparison.

I did a lot of A/B comparison between speakers before buying my current Mackie HD-series (3.500 euro for 1x 18″ sub, 2x 2-way 12″ full-range) setup. While the Behringer in stand alone (no comparison) might sound acceptable, A/B it and you realize immediately that there is no comparison.

Mind you, I am not saying that Behringer is bad (or any other brand) but it just takes a certain amount of money, both in components and in research and development to get a certain result. Behringer, American DJ and colleagues do their best within the budget they have to work with. But the results will never match (or even come very close to) the brands that DO spend that kind of R&D and buy/manufacture only the high(er) end components. And there are many brands (just take a look at 100 buck DJ speakers on Amazon) that bring out total crap for an ultra low price. So yeah, you could do (a lot) worse than Behringer and ADJ.

Let me give you a simple example. Let’s say you bought an el cheapo speaker on Amazon. You take out the driver and replace it with one from an RCF speaker. You’d think that the el cheapo would now sound close to the RCF as it has the same driver, right? Wrong! While it will sound better than with the old driver, there are so many things out of tune now (from the quality and tuning of the cabinet to the settings of the crossover to the quality of the amplifier, that they will still sound like cheapo speakers.

The thing is that RCF and other brands, actually test the components first and then work exclusively with those components in developing new models, where every single aspect is tested and tuned. This takes lots of time, expertise and some very expensive testing gear. The results are speakers that audibly outperform more budget speakers.

At these forums you will always hear that for PA “you get what you pay for”. And this still holds true. Even within the higher segment there is a lot of difference, but this goes more towards personal taste than actual quality difference. It has to do with design choices and manufacturing philosophy, filtering, drivers and such things. All high quality but they can be tuned slightly different or drivers can have slightly differing characteristics.

An important factor here is the choice of a manufacturer how they WANT their speakers to sound. In monitors, you want brutal honesty. Pretty much straight reproduction of the original recorded/produced sound. But if PA’s where that “honest”, you could not stand to listen to them at high volumes for long periods of time. So manufacturers strive to make their PA speakers sound “comfortable”. But the definition changes from brand to brand. It’s why some brands have a reputation of being “warm”-sounding, others more “boomy” and yet others “sharp”. This, again, is not a quality issue, but by (design) choice.

The reason we suggest renting til your can buy pro-grade gear is two-fold:
1) you will – typically – not always play in the same venue. This means your desired setup will change from gig to gig. Renting gives you the proper flexibility to always have a PA that fits the room without being over-sized or under-powered.
2) you only get to make one first impression. The way you sound is a big part of that. So you want to sound as good as possible, especially if your customers are paying for gear. As we have just established, there is no shortcut to pro sound. Renting assures that you have pro-grade gear/sound and (if you made a deal with the rental companies) you can make some money on the actual rent. Bonus: you can rent several different brands/models and have a more extensive test to see which you like best.

If you are a starting DJ, you will – more often than not – be playing in smaller surroundings (like house parties). Currently the new 1x sub, 2x satellite compact systems are perfectly suited for that purpose. Great sound quality and volume levels with a minimum of floor space occupied. Having one of these setups allows you to easily pack up and play even a last minute party at a friends house or pool. If you get invited to play at something bigger and need to bring your own gear, rent.