Best Karaoke Microphones: 7 Picks for Bluetooth, Wireless & Duets

This guide starts with the three kinds of karaoke microphone and what each one plugs into, then a quick-picks table. After that it's my pick for each job: the all-in-one, the wireless kit for a party speaker, the duet setup, the wired mic with nothing to charge, one for kids and one premium option.

Before you compare anything, decide what the mic has to plug into. That one answer rules out two-thirds of the options.

All-in-one Bluetooth mic

The mic has a little speaker built into the handle. You pair it with your phone, play a karaoke track from YouTube or an app, and sing. Nothing else to buy. The catch: the sound is only as big as a speaker the size of a soda can, and Bluetooth adds a delay you can hear if you plug it into anything else.

Wireless mic kit for a speaker you already own

Two mics and a small receiver that plugs into the mic input on a party speaker or a mixer. They run over their own 2.4 GHz or UHF radio, not Bluetooth, which is how JBL gets its kit under 12 milliseconds. This is the pick if you already have a party speaker, or you're buying one anyway.

Wired dynamic mic

A cable, no batteries, nothing to pair. The same kind of mic bands use on stage, and with no battery, there's nothing to charge or die mid-song. They need a speaker or mixer with a mic input, and usually an adapter cable, which I cover below.

The Carpool Karaoke Mic 2.0 is the all-in-one I'd pick: pair it with your phone over Bluetooth, or plug in an AUX cable, and the speaker in the handle does the rest. It has six voice effects, vocal removal, and up to six hours per charge. A built-in FM transmitter plays it through a car radio, which is where the name comes from.

It's also the one all-in-one whose maker says "Connect two mics and double the fun!", so a second one makes a duet set. Keep expectations right: the speaker is built into the handle, so it's great for a kid's room, a road trip or a quick laugh at a party, not for filling a room. As u/DavidO_Pgh put it in an r/karaoke thread on home mics: "The cheap ones work but are more of a toy."

If you own a party speaker, or you're buying one, this is the upgrade that makes it a karaoke machine. You get two cardioid mics on a 2.4 GHz link with a stated range of 30 meters and up to 20 hours per charge. JBL rates the latency at "<12ms", which is far below what anyone can hear.

The receiver has a standard 1/4-inch output, so it isn't locked to JBL. Best Buy's Q&A answer is that it should work with any device that has a 6.35 mm mic input, which covers most party speakers and mixers. In the same r/karaoke thread, u/mrspinky, who runs a JBL PartyBox 120 at home, said "I think you'll be pretty happy with the JBL mics."

The TONOR TW-820 is the cheaper route to the same setup: two metal dynamic mics on UHF, 15 channels to dodge interference, a stated 200-foot range and a 6.35 mm output. Gearank's rating roundup scores it 90 out of 100. It runs on AA batteries rather than a rechargeable pack.

One warning straight from the listing: it's "not compatible with laptops, iPads, cell phones." It needs a speaker or mixer with a mic input, same as the JBL. Amazon flags this kit as frequently returned, so I've linked Walmart instead; check that your speaker has a 1/4-inch mic input before you buy.

For duets, get a kit that comes with two mics. Both the JBL PartyBox Wireless Mic and the TONOR TW-820 above do, each mic gets its own channel, and nobody has to pass a mic back and forth mid-chorus. RTINGS' top karaoke speaker, the JBL PartyBox 710, even has "two mic inputs, each with its own volume and gain knobs" for exactly this.

Two Bluetooth mics are where it gets tricky. Most makers don't say whether two will work together, and the older Carpool Karaoke mic can't be used with a second one at all, according to an answer on Best Buy's Q&A.

If you want an all-in-one anyway, two of the Carpool Karaoke Mic 2.0 from my all-in-one pick above is the setup whose maker says it works. I'd still pick a two-mic kit for a party, but for a road trip it's the fun one.

Need songs to go with it? The best duet karaoke songs list says who sings which part.

Musician Nerd called the Shure SM58 "probably the most popular microphone on the market for vocals." It's a cardioid dynamic mic, so it picks up your voice and not much of the room.

Plan for the cable. The SM58 has an XLR plug, and a party speaker's mic jack is usually 1/4-inch, so you'll need an XLR-to-1/4" cable unless your speaker has a combo jack.

The Sennheiser e835 is the other classic stage vocal mic, with Sweetwater pointing to its "outstanding feedback rejection." A former karaoke host of 15 years, u/purpletib, wrote on r/karaoke: "My personal favorite is Sennheiser brand for its warm tone." Pick whichever you can get for less. Same cable note applies.

Forbes Vetted's pick for kids: a Bluetooth mic with its own speaker, four voice effects and about six hours of battery, branded with the Kidz Bop songs a lot of kids already know.

The age range depends on who you ask. Walmart's listing says 4 to 10, the Amazon listing says 3 and up, and Forbes says it works for kids as young as two. If your kid is at the young end, look at the photos and decide whether they can hold it.

JBL's newest mics do something the others can't: AI vocal removal at 25, 50 or 100 percent, so you can sing over almost any song on your phone, not just karaoke tracks. They also add feedback suppression, and run about 10 hours per charge, connecting through a USB-C dongle.

The big catch: they only work with the Encore 2, Encore Essential 2, On-The-Go 2, Club 120 and Stage 320, 520 and 720. If your PartyBox isn't on that list, get the PartyBox Wireless Mic instead.

Keep Bluetooth out of the mic path

Bluetooth is fine for the music, not for your voice. SoundGuys measured about 300 milliseconds of lag on common phone codecs and notes that "above 150ms becomes quite noticeable". Hearing yourself that late throws off your timing, or as u/VegasFoodFace put it on r/karaoke: "Bluetooth mics have severe lag making singing annoying." Run the mic into the speaker over its own wireless kit or a cable.

Put the speaker in front of the mic

That screech is feedback: the mic hearing the speaker. Yamaha's advice is to "make sure that speakers are placed in front of the microphones", facing the crowd and away from the singer. Shure's fix is to move the mic closer to your mouth, so you can keep the volume lower.

Don't cup the mic

Wrapping your hand around the grille looks cool and makes feedback worse. Yamaha says it turns the mic "omnidirectional", so it picks up the speaker as well as you. Hold the handle.

Go easy on the echo

A little echo flatters everyone. A lot makes every word mush together. Turn it up until you notice it, then back it off a notch.

Got the mic? Now pick your song from the best karaoke songs, or start with the easy karaoke songs if you're new to this.

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