A standard Bluetooth speaker is designed to play music. A karaoke speaker includes a built-in pre-amplifier for microphones, specialized "mixing" hardware to blend your voice with the music, and often features vocal-specific effects like echo, which are essential for making a singer sound good.

That’s "feedback," which happens when the microphone picks up the sound coming out of the speaker and amplifies it again in a loop. To avoid this, try to keep the microphone behind the speaker, lower the mic gain, or reduce the treble on your mixer.

Wireless microphones offer much more freedom for stage performance and dancing. However, wired microphones (using XLR cables) generally offer higher audio fidelity and are immune to the wireless interference that can sometimes occur in crowded electronic environments. For most home parties, a high-quality UHF wireless mic is the perfect balance of convenience and performance.