Can I Connect a Mic to My Soundbar? The Setups That Work
Can I connect a mic to my soundbar? For a typical TV soundbar, not directly, because it has no microphone jack and its HDMI, optical and AUX inputs expect a full-strength signal from a television or phone.
A mic plugged into the AUX jack anyway gives almost no sound at all, which is exactly what Shure says happens when a mic meets a line-level input.
Put a preamp in between, or choose a bar or party speaker with a mic input built in, and your voice comes out of the speakers at a normal level.
The routes below come from makers’ own documents: VIZIO’s karaoke soundbar, Sony’s party speaker, a small mixer, a karaoke mixer that sits between TV and bar, and an LG TV that takes a USB mic.
Start with the back of your bar, because its inputs decide which route fits.
Can I Connect a Mic to My Soundbar Directly?
That back panel is where the trouble starts, since a typical bar carries nothing a microphone can use. No, not to a typical soundbar: Shure describes a mic’s output as typically just a few thousandths of a volt, while line level is about 1 volt, roughly 1,000 times as strong (Shure).
Shure puts mic level at -60 to -40 dBu and consumer line level, the kind MP3 and DVD players put out, at -10 dBV. A soundbar’s AUX jack is a line input of that consumer kind: VIZIO’s SB3830 quick start guide labels its jack “Analog Audio In (3.5mm Stereo),” and Sony’s HT-A7000 help guide pairs its ANALOG IN jack with an audio device such as a WALKMAN.
Shure adds that a mic-level signal is too weak to drive a line input. A turntable runs into the same wall at phono level, which is why Burton Acoustix’s turntable-to-soundbar guide starts with the phono preamp a turntable needs.
The digital inputs don’t help either: Samsung’s HW-Q600F user guide lists an optical input, an HDMI input, an HDMI TO TV (eARC/ARC) port and a USB port that plays music files, with no jack for a microphone.
HDMI isn’t a back door, because ARC is the television’s own sound coming back out to the bar, and VIZIO’s MicMe manual describes the set’s ARC port as an audio output. Check the connection diagram in your bar’s manual: if every jack is marked AUX, OPTICAL, HDMI or USB, the mic needs a box in between.
Which Soundbars and Party Speakers Take a Microphone?
A few speakers turn that problem around, with the preamp already inside. VIZIO’s MicMe soundbar (SK210X-0805) comes with two wireless microphones, and Sony’s ULT TOWER 10 party speaker has a MIC/GUITAR jack for a wired dynamic mic with a 6.3 mm plug, plus a wireless mic in the box.
The MicMe’s mics work with that bar only, VIZIO’s manual says, and the bar joins the television by HDMI eARC, with no optical input on its spec sheet (VIZIO). When the mics are on, it switches off Dolby Atmos and DTS:X, and pointing a mic at the bar from closer than about 2 feet (half a meter) causes feedback.
Each MicMe mic has its own volume, which VIZIO defines as mic sensitivity, or gain, while the echo is shared. Songs come from a karaoke app on the television or a phone streaming over Bluetooth.
Sony’s help guide has you turn the MIC and GUITAR level knob to MIN, plug in the mic and then raise the knob (Sony). The television connects to the OPTICAL IN with the supplied optical cable, but karaoke is unavailable while the TV Sound Booster function is on, and Sony warns that a mic held close to the speaker may cause feedback that, depending on the volume, shuts the speaker off through its protection feature.
JBL’s spec sheet says its wireless mic set belongs on “a speaker with a mic input,” naming its PartyBox speakers as the best match, and a party speaker beside the screen is the route with the fewest boxes.
How Do You Connect a Mic to a Soundbar With a Mixer?
Keeping the bar you already own means adding the preamp it lacks, and Shure calls a mixer probably the most popular way to do it. Plug the mic into the mixer’s mic input, raise the gain until your voice peaks at 0 dB on its meter, and run the mixer’s output into the bar’s AUX input.
Behringer’s XENYX 802S shows how that works: a mic goes into one of its two balanced XLR inputs, its +48 V phantom power switch is for condenser mics, and the gain range runs from +10 to +60 dB (Behringer). Its quick start guide says to turn GAIN fully counterclockwise whenever you plug a mic in or out, and to back it off if the channel’s CLIP light comes on.
For the bar, use the 802S’s STREAM OUT pair, unbalanced RCA jacks that carry a lower-level copy of the main mix. A stereo RCA-to-3.5 mm cable, the kind VIZIO packs with its SB3830 sound bar, runs from there to the AUX jack, and the bar’s Input button selects AUX.
The bar plays whichever source you select, so the music has to run through the mixer too: the 802S’s STREAM IN jacks take a CD player or another line source once STREAM TO MIX is pressed, and its USB port carries audio from a computer.
If the music comes from the television, its headphone or audio-out jack can feed the mixer, and Burton Acoustix’s AUX cable guide for TVs and soundbars shows where that jack is and which setting turns it on.
For a bar with an AUX jack, Behringer’s XENYX 802S has the mic inputs, the gain and the RCA output this route needs. The products on this page met Burton Acoustix’s rating, review and stock checks on 27 October 2026.
Behringer’s XENYX 802S
What If Your Soundbar Has Only HDMI and Optical?
That AUX route depends on a jack plenty of current bars leave out. Use a karaoke mixer that sits between the set and the bar instead: it takes the television’s sound over HDMI ARC, mixes in the mics and sends the result to the bar’s optical input.
The HW-Q600F above is one such bar, and Bose’s Smart Soundbar 700 owner’s guide connects that bar by HDMI eARC or ARC, or else by optical, with a converter for a TV that has neither.
Sound Town’s SWM16-MAX is built for that gap (Sound Town). It has an HD OUT (TV ARC) port for an HDMI cable from the set’s ARC port, optical and 3.5 mm AUX inputs and outputs, an HD IN port, Bluetooth for background music and two UHF wireless mics.
Sound Town’s setup has you enable ARC, select PCM as the audio format and choose external speakers in the set’s settings, then run the mixer’s optical or AUX output to the soundbar. Two Toslink cables and 3.5 mm and 3.5 mm-to-RCA cables come in the box, but the HDMI cable doesn’t.
The same output can feed a receiver instead, and Sound Town names Bose’s 300, 500 and 700 soundbars, VIZIO and Samsung among the bars it works with. If a streaming box such as an Nvidia Shield runs through the bar’s HDMI input, move it to the TV, the order Burton Acoustix’s Shield-to-soundbar HDMI guide gives for a bar with no spare input, because the mixer now holds the set’s ARC port.
For a bar with only HDMI and optical, Sound Town’s SWM16-MAX brings the mics, the ARC input and the optical output in one box.
Can the TV Take the Mic Instead of the Soundbar?
Since the television already sits at the head of that chain, some sets can take the mic themselves. LG’s webOS 25 user guide has a section on using a USB input microphone: you plug it into the set’s USB port and use content made for a microphone.
The bar then plays whatever the set sends it over ARC or optical, but LG’s guide doesn’t say which apps route your voice to a connected speaker, so try one song first.
Samsung’s 2025 US TV user guide, by contrast, describes the set’s own microphone and the Smart Remote’s, for Bixby and the sound sensor, and no plug-in one.
Does a Bluetooth Microphone Work With a Soundbar?
A Bluetooth mic looks like a way around every cable so far, but timing spoils it. If the bar accepts it as a Bluetooth source, your voice still comes out late: Sony’s ULT TOWER 10 guide says that, due to the characteristics of Bluetooth, the sound from the speaker is slightly delayed from the sound on the Bluetooth device.
Even Qualcomm’s low-latency codec, aptX Low Latency, is rated at approximately 40 milliseconds, which Qualcomm calls the rate needed to synchronize sound and picture. For a singer, any delay means hearing your own voice a moment after you sing.
The bars’ own settings only go so far. Sony’s BRAVIA Theatre Bar 5 guide suggests switching Bluetooth Connection Quality to Priority on Stable Connection if sound delay occurs, and Samsung’s HW-Q600F guide makes its SYNC audio delay, 0 to 300 milliseconds, unavailable in BT mode.
A sync setting only adds delay to match a late picture, so it can’t pull a late voice forward. Keep Bluetooth for the music from a phone and give the mic its own link: a cable, a karaoke mixer’s UHF mics or a bar whose mics are made for it, like the MicMe’s, which connect over Bluetooth LC3/LC3+ per VIZIO’s spec sheet but pair only with that bar.
The same lag hits TV sound sent over Bluetooth, and the Bluetooth vs optical soundbar guide explains why.
What Is the Microphone Built Into Your Soundbar For?
Those MicMe mics are made for singing, but the microphone built into a smart bar does a different job. It listens rather than plays: Samsung’s HW-Q990F guide says SpaceFit Sound Pro analyzes your listening space using the soundbar’s microphone and AVA Pro analyzes external noise, and a Microphone button turns the mic on or off.
Bose’s Smart Soundbar 700 owner’s guide splits the job the same way: the bar’s microphone serves Amazon Alexa or Google Assistant, with a Microphone off button on top, and a separate ADAPTiQ headset with a microphone on top measures the room during setup.
Samsung’s 2025 US TV guide even lists using your voice with a soundbar’s microphone among Bixby’s wake-up settings. Each guide describes these mics for voice commands and room tuning, not for singing through the speakers.
Can You Connect a Microphone to a Samsung Soundbar?
Samsung owners search for this one by name, and that Microphone button doesn’t change the answer. Not directly: Samsung’s HW-Q600F and HW-Q990F guides list HDMI, optical and USB connections and no microphone jack, and the Q990F’s USB port is for firmware updates.
That leaves the optical route, a karaoke mixer such as the SWM16-MAX feeding the bar’s DIGITAL AUDIO IN (OPTICAL), which Samsung describes as the input for the digital (optical) output of an external device. Set the bar to D.IN, the optical input mode in the HW-Q600F guide, and run the television’s ARC cable to the mixer instead of the bar.
Which Setup Fits Your Soundbar?
All of those routes hang on the inputs you found on the back of your bar, so the table starts there. Match your bar’s inputs to a row: a mic input needs nothing extra, AUX needs a mixer, and HDMI and optical alone need a karaoke mixer between the screen and the bar.
| Your bar or speaker has | Route | What to add |
|---|---|---|
| A mic input or its own mics (VIZIO MicMe, Sony ULT TOWER 10) | Mic straight in, or the mics in the box | Nothing, or a dynamic mic with a 6.3 mm plug for the Sony |
| An AUX or analog input | Mic, then a mixer, then the bar’s AUX | A small mixer and a stereo RCA-to-3.5 mm cable |
| HDMI ARC and optical only | The set’s ARC to a karaoke mixer, then the bar’s optical input | A karaoke mixer with an ARC port and an optical output |
| An LG TV on webOS 25 | USB mic into the set, sound out to the bar as usual | A USB microphone |
A bar with both AUX and optical can take either middle row. A DJ controller with a mic input already has the preamp, and the steps to connect a microphone to a DJ controller cover its mic level and attenuator knobs.
The Bottom Line
A typical TV soundbar can’t take a microphone directly, because its inputs expect line-level or digital audio and Shure puts line level about 1,000 times above a mic’s output.
Add the preamp the bar lacks: a mixer into the AUX jack, a karaoke mixer on the optical input, or a bar or party speaker with the mic input built in.
Keep the music on Bluetooth if you like, but keep the mic off it if you want to sing in time. The inputs, levels and delays come from the makers’ own documents.
Frequently Asked Questions
Can you plug a mic directly into a speaker?
Only into one with a microphone input. Sony’s ULT TOWER 10 takes a dynamic mic with a 6.3 mm plug in its MIC/GUITAR jack, while its 3.5 mm AUDIO IN jack is for a portable audio device on a stereo mini-plug cable, the same job a soundbar’s AUX jack does. A speaker with line inputs only needs a mixer or a mic preamp in between, as Shure explains.
Does a Samsung TV have a mic input?
Not for a plug-in karaoke mic, going by Samsung’s 2025 US TV user guide. The microphone it describes is built into the set or the Smart Remote for Bixby and the sound sensor, and it has its own on/off switch, whose position varies by model. The guide’s list of input devices covers USB keyboards, mice, gamepads and cameras plus Bluetooth devices, with no microphone, so check your own model’s e-Manual too.
How do I connect a wireless microphone to a soundbar?
Through the wireless system’s receiver and a mixer, or with a karaoke mixer that has the receiver built in. Shure says receiver output levels can differ by as much as 20 dB and that each receiver’s guide gives its level, so plug the receiver into a mixer and the mixer into the bar’s AUX jack. Without AUX, the SWM16-MAX’s mics reach the bar by optical.
How do I connect a JBL microphone to a JBL soundbar?
JBL’s spec sheet pitches its wireless mic set at “a speaker with a mic input,” with a JBL PartyBox as the best match, and lists the receiver’s connection as 1/4-inch (6.3 mm) unbalanced, with a maximum output of -13 dBV. On a soundbar, plug that receiver into a mixer’s line input, such as the 1/4-inch jack on each of the XENYX 802S’s mono channels, and run the mixer into the bar’s AUX.
Can I connect a mic to a soundbar with HDMI?
Not through the bar’s HDMI ports, which carry a television’s or a player’s sound, not a microphone’s. A karaoke mixer with an ARC port can join that chain, though, as the SWM16-MAX does.
Will a USB microphone work with a soundbar?
Not on the bars here: Samsung’s HW-Q600F uses its USB port to play music files, the HW-Q990F’s port updates firmware, and VIZIO’s SB3830 plays .WAV files from USB. A USB mic belongs on a television that takes one, such as an LG on webOS 25.
