Ikarao Shell S1 Is an Almost Perfect Portable Karaoke Speaker

Karaoke has been performed with a standard microphone and portable speaker for many years, and we are fine with that. But Ikarao , a company that makes karaoke speakers, decided to take karaoke to the next level. They use technology that has been at our disposal for years but for some reason never made it into karaoke speakers to make them more practical and fun. Until now. Their latest flagship product, the Shell S1 Karaoke , is the most affordable karaoke speaker with a touchscreen tablet, dual Bluetooth microphones and powerful sound for a small, portable speaker.

Ikarao sent me his column for review. After countless hours of karaoke, I can recommend this to anyone looking for a portable karaoke speaker. There aren’t many competitors in the market for this type of device, but the Shell S1 is still a solid product that outperforms its own speaker catalogue.

Pros, cons and characteristics of the Shell S1 karaoke speaker

Pros

• Has a 10.1 inch touch screen tablet.

• Compact and portable karaoke machine.

• Powerful 104dB stereo speaker with extra bass boost.

• Comes with two wireless microphones with 20-hour battery life.

• Can be connected to a TV with an HDMI cable.

• Can play and charge at the same time

• The built-in Karafun app allows you to get the most out of your speaker.

• Integrated Spotify app

Cons

• There’s no easy way to cast your screen to your TV

• There is no built-in YouTube app.

• There is no way to fully customize the equalizer.

Characteristics

• Battery life : Up to nine hours with the screen on and 12 hours with the screen off.

• Connectivity : USB, AUX in/out, HDMI, Wi-Fi, OTG and Bluetooth V5.4.

• Inputs : AUX input, microphone input, USB input.

• Application : No

• Speakers : Equipped with two 3.5″ 15W woofers and two 1″ 10W tweeters covering a frequency range of 50Hz – 18kHz.

• Output Power : Peak power 280 W and maximum sound level 104 dB.

• Waterproof : No

• Size : 13.9 by 6.9 by 6.7 inches (L x W x H)

• Weight : 11.7 lbs

First impressions of the Shell S1 karaoke speaker

My expectations for this review were somewhat low, mainly because I had never heard of Ikarao before. But I was pleasantly surprised. The Shell S1 is a portable one-stop shop for all your karaoke needs. This makes it easy to grab and take with you to a friend’s house or around the house. But as I’ll explain, it’s not ideal.

I was amazed at how loud this speaker can be – 104dB to be exact. It’s loud enough to fill most living rooms. There’s also a bass boost button on the front panel (along with volume controls, power, Bluetooth, and a local play button for switching input sources) that really boosts the bass significantly. I was able to play music on my surround sound system and sing over it using just the S1 microphone (useful if you have a surround sound system that you want to use in conjunction with a speaker).

While the speaker is portable, it’s quite heavy for its size (around 12 pounds), which makes sense—you’re combining two microphones, a tablet, and a stereo speaker in one product. Ikarao comes with a shoulder strap to make the S1 easy to carry.

Two Bluetooth microphones are cleverly hidden inside the speaker when you lift the screen, and they automatically charge as they’re stored (just like the earphone charging cases). They have a range of about 32 feet and a battery life of 20 hours. They also have handy volume controls, a power button that also lets you toggle microphone effects (including some fun ones), and a button that controls media so you can play, pause, or skip to the next song in queue (the microphones button is essentially function as remote controls). I was also surprised by how little feedback I got as I turned up the volume and moved closer to the speaker. I really had to try really hard to get anything. Overall, the quality of the microphone was excellent.

All interface inputs and outputs are located on the rear panel of the speaker. It has another option: a third wired microphone with a 3.5mm input, AUX input, USB On-The-Go (OTG), USB port, HDMI so you can connect the tablet to your TV, Type-C. Power input for charging and AUX output for connecting to other speakers.

Now let’s move on to the fun part.

Features of the Shell S1 karaoke speaker

The Shell S1 touchscreen is an Android tablet, but it doesn’t have the ability to download apps, which means I’m stuck with what it is (unless Ikarao decides to do OTA updates in the future). There’s also no way to fully customize the EQ, but honestly, it sounds great out of the box.

The Shell S1 has an HDMI output, which I was able to connect to my TV quickly and easily. However, my living room has a surround sound system that doesn’t have an AUX connection, meaning I’m stuck playing music through the Shell S1 speaker only. If the Shell S1 had the ability to cast its screen to a smart TV, it would not only make big screen projection easier for large groups, but would also allow those with surround sound systems to use them for karaoke. Ikarao does provide the ability to cast to a smart TV using a third-party app that loads into the speaker, but it’s confusing and I can’t imagine anyone at a party (especially after a couple of drinks) being able to figure it out. Ikarao’s swing and miss.

Although the first thing you’ll see when you open the screen is YouTube, don’t get too excited. This is not a YouTube app; it’s just a direct link to YouTube through the Firefox browser. If you ask me, this is a huge ball dropped by Ikarao. Karaoke is mostly done through YouTube, where you can find almost any song imaginable in a karaoke version, all for free. The web version of YouTube via Firefox with a 10-inch touchscreen is, to put it mildly, clumsy and slow. (In case you’re wondering, yes, this means you can use the browser to do everything an Android tablet allows.)

Instead of focusing his efforts on YouTube, Ikarao decided to turn on the Spotify app. This is great if you have a smart portable speaker. But it has to be a karaoke speaker, and Spotify doesn’t support karaoke. Of course, you can make it work by singing the lyrics or accidentally finding an actual karaoke version of your favorite song, but good luck reading the lyrics.

You can also play music through local USB drives. Not as exciting as the other options, but we’d really appreciate it if you find yourself somewhere without Wi-Fi or just have unclear taste in music.

Of course, you can also connect your phone directly to the speaker via Bluetooth, but then there is no way to follow the lyrics, which defeats the purpose of a karaoke machine. So what’s a good option left?

I saved the best for last.

KaraFun application

Ikarao has partnered with KaraFun , a well-designed karaoke app that starts at $9.99 per month . This might explain why Ikarao decided not to include YouTube in its speaker, and if that’s the reason, it’s frustrating. Ikarao offers a six-month subscription to KaraFun with your purchase, but why not include the YouTube app as well?

Disappointments aside, KaraFun takes full advantage of the speaker’s potential. It’s a more seamless experience than using YouTube for karaoke, with a huge catalog of karaoke songs, a queuing feature, the ability to join sessions and add songs via any phone by simply scanning an on-screen QR code, and a fun feature that lets you take photos and send them by email at the end of the session. But unless you’re willing to add another monthly subscription to your budget, you’ll have to make do with other options.

Bottom line

The Shell S1 smart karaoke speaker is impressive and one of a kind. It’s very close to being the perfect portable karaoke speaker, although it still has the potential to become that if Ikarao decides to add the YouTube app with an update. If this app also allows you to stream YouTube to your TV, karaoke bars may go out of business. But for now, a physical HDMI cable will do.

Unfortunately, the best way to get the full potential of the Shell S1 is to use the KaraFun app, which starts at $9.99 per month. But if you don’t mind it, the partnership works very well. The speaker is powerful for its size, bass enhancement is strong, and music quality doesn’t degrade at high volumes. The two Bluetooth microphones are quality, control media, have long battery life, automatically charge when stored, and have very little feedback. The touchscreen tablet looks good and makes it a truly versatile karaoke device.

The speaker is very portable and has everything you need for karaoke right out of the box. The ability to play and charge means the party never stops as long as there’s an outlet nearby. This is a top-notch portable karaoke machine that costs between $300 and $350.

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