Get in the Moment with this karaoke soundbar

The Moment wireless karaoke soundbar is a godsend for singalong songbirds.

It lets you recreate the karaoke experience at home without having to shell out per-hour dollars for a room in a lounge.

Moment accurately replicates characteristic elements such as reverb, which smooths over uneven voice tones. It also has a built-in mixer that can toggle through pre-set and custom sound profiles.

The system is the product of a crowdfunding campaign which concluded last October after raising US$91,486 (S$128,420) from 382 backers.

Spear Logic, which created the system, is owned by Singapore digital home entertainment company AC Ryan.

The system does not have its own song library, but syncs with mobile devices running apps such as Smule, YouTube and Spotify.

As a home user, I particularly like the connectivity and compact form factor of the set-up.

Moment has a 16-inch sound bar, which means that it will fit on a slim TV console or on a crowded desk.

It connects wirelessly to a subwoofer and microphone, which eliminates cable tangle.

The system is easy to set up, and is pretty much plug and play. It took me just under five minutes to connect all the components wirelessly and set up Bluetooth streaming from my tablet.

It also comes with auxiliary and optical inputs for those who prefer a wired connection.

Although Moment is primarily marketed as a karaoke soundbar, it also comes with four pre-set equaliser modes for other types of media such as movies.

Sound-wise, Moment's karaoke mode really did make me feel like I was warbling in a darkened room with my friends.

The reverb and echo were forgiving of my slightly pitchy voice, and the sound was loud enough to keep me immersed in the music.

As a regular speaker, Moment is crisp and clear, although I did find that the sound thinned towards the lower range.

While I do not think that Moment has the power to replace a living room set-up - soundbar and subwoofer each output 60W - it should be more than adequate for a smallish room.

True-blue karaoke aficionados should also note that it does not come with pitch modulation. Raising or lowering the pitch has to be done in-app.

Perhaps the only element missing from the usual karaoke experience was a bowl of over-priced tidbits.

TECH SPECS

PRICE: $599

DRIVERS: Soundbar: A pair of 3.5-inch drivers and a pair of 1-inch tweeters; subwoofer: one 6.5-inch driver

OUTPUT POWER: 60W for both the soundbar and subwoofer

WEIGHT: Soundbar: 2kg; subwoofer: 4.6kg

RATING

FEATURES: 3/5

DESIGN: 4/5

PERFORMANCE: 4/5

OVERALL: 4/5

lting@sph.com.sg

This article was first published on Feb 10, 2016.
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