Downtown Echo Karaoke Box

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http://toronto.ibegin.com/misc/downtown-echo-karaoke-box

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Reviews & Ratings (Showing Latest 2 of 2)

jiahuang Reviews: 1 Badges: 0	Overall:	December 29, 2007
	2 out of 2 people found this review helpful. at first, when i realized there's a karaoke place in downtown toronto, i was really happy. i was thinking to myself "finally! i dont have to go all the way to scarbrough if i wanted to do some singing". when i first started going, everything was going smooth. and i thought this place was not so bad after all. but the longer i went to downtown echo karaoke for entertainment, i changed my mind. i realized this place is not the best place i want to be at for fun. why? well let me make this simple, because the quality is bad, the songs are too little (especially english songs), the service is slow and worst of all, the people that work there have the WORST attitude ive seen EVER! honestly, let me give an example. this one time i went to echo for happy hour with a friends. we were singing, everything was good, but then we accidently pour our drinks on the floor. the room was small, its easy to knock down things. its understandable, right? but thats not what the workers thought. instead, because of our accident, we had to spent an extra $50. they called that money, "cleaning fee". its because we made a mess, that we had to pay them to clean the mess up. LIKE WTF?!?!?! all those workers are RUDE. me and my friends had to argue with them for awhile, and they even threatened us if we didnt pay the full amount, they would call the police. we didnt want to make a big deal, so we just paid and left. but instead of having a fun time, enjoying our happy hour, we left with a grudge and anger. which is not the best feeling. worst of all, i felt scammed !! I do not recommend this place.

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Jonah Libster	Overall:	October 20, 2006
	17 out of 17 people found this review helpful. After realizing my karaoke box section was sorely lacking I decided to try out a place that I often passed on my way to see clients. The Echo karaoke box is located on the 2nd floor of the Dragon City mall at Spadina and Bloor on the Southwest corner. You can't miss the flashy sign. I invited a Chinese speaking to come along with me just in case as many places in this area have questionable English and my Chinese is almost non-existent. You never know, right? The good: The pricing was unusual for me at least in North America. This place is membership based. The price per hour is by far the best thing going for this place as well as location. The pricing is as follows: Monday - Thursday 3 PM - 8:45 PM $7 per person Friday 3 PM - 8:45 PM $9 per person 9 PM - 3 AM Weekdays: Small room (1-5) people : $35 - $50 Medium room (5-8) people: $60 - $100 Large Room(10-15) people: $120 Party Room(20+) people : $120 - $180 9 PM - 3 AM Weekends: Small room (1-5) people : $55 - $90 Medium room (5-8) people: $120 - $180 Large Room(10-15) people: $200 Party Room(20+) people : $240 - $320 These are flat rates for the entire evening you are there between the times posted. It has the potential to be very cheap per hour. Best time is probably Friday nights before 9 PM. After that I calculate the pricing to be average. There are a few thing you need to know about the pricing they don't tell you but I'll come to that in the next section The Bad: Now we come to the fun part. While I indicated the pricing is good for Weekdays and average on weekend there are a few hidden details. First, its subscription based. So if casts $20 per year for the subscription. If on one in your group has one its an additional $5 per person. (Why is it that people from outside Canada see fit to leave out these details in writing?) They have food t there but the quality was mediocre at best and the prices on this food were almost double what I would pay at XO. Beef Chow Mein was $12 for a serving fit for one person while at XO I get 3 times the amount and better quality food for $9. I guess this is why a bunch of people went there to sing on Friday before 9 and got dinner somewhere else later. The equipment doesn't get any better. The system is pure cheap midi controlled by a computer. there were no books, which made selection awkward and the selection of English songs was barely passable at 3200. My Chinese friend told me they had a decent amount of Chinese songs but I didn't get a number. The speakers were of very low grade, the microphones even lower (have to work to sound decent) and there is no transposition at all. Small rooms are VEY cramped. As for as communication with the staff my fears were justified. The staff there including the manager there could barely speak English at all. They didn't even understand the phrase "pitch" when I asked about whether I could transpose the music or not and there are no written instructions anywhere except the screens and they were minimal at best. Watch out if you decide to get membership here because they ask you for ID and may "offer" to hold on to it while you are in the room. My first thought of course was "potential identity theft" so I made to process the membership card in my presence and took my idea when done. They could have easily asked me to fill out a from. I could be wrong but something felt shady about the whole thing as no one should require ID unless you are paying for credit card, let alone keep for a few hours at any karaoke place. This was the most unprofessional and suspect karaoke box I have ever been to and I felt I'd better watch my credit card and bank activity for the next few months. The mixed: No mixes here. Good was the price on weekdays. The bad was everything else. Summary: If you are looking for a place near Chinatown and you want to sing cheap come here on a Friday but be warned. If you don't have a friend who has membership (which I do now) and you want to come more than once, insist that you give them membership information on paper or on a form and DO NOT give them ANY ID with private information like Social Insurance, Driver's License or Bank information. If they refuse to accept this, go somewhere else. Identity Theft is on the rise and these people should know better, especially for what amounts to a low grade karaoke box. Keeping one's government ID for long period is simply unacceptable. Period. If you can get past all I've said and want cheap fees on weekdays with limited selection and no transposition and cheap equipment the location is convenient enough and the price is right. Otherwise there are MANY other places out there which I will be reviewing shortly. Summary Scores: Facilities: 7 (Small rooms are really small but rooms are in good order) Equipment: 6.0 (cheap speakers, poor initial levels, cheap mikes and no transposition) Location: 8 (parking may be a little out of the way but easy access by streetcar) Food Prices: 5 (Prices on food here are highway robbery, better of eating elsewhere) Service(Karaoke Box only):5 (Poor English, inadequate instructions and questionable ID collection practices) Selection:6 (Barely passable with 3200 English song, Chinese I'm told selection is better) Wait Times: 8 (For a computer system this system was somewhat slow) Room Prices: 8 (see matrix above, best to come weekday evenings or prices are average) Final Grade: C- (These guys got me to bump up XO original C- grade to a C but they also have been fixing up equipment) for a new business these guys have a lot of work to do. I feel like their motto was "how cheap can you go?" along with "how much can we get for food". There was just an unprofessional feel to the staff and membership practices they current have there. I would advise against joining their membership list unless they change the way they collect your information. To see more reviews on other venues take a look at http://torontokaraoke.blogspot.com I do not recommend this place.

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