The microphone sound on this machine did not work for me. The mic was only audible when the mic volume was all the way up, and the master volume was also very high. But with the master volume so high, the music was so loud that it drowned out the mic, and it was just too loud in general. I tested the mic in my stereo and it worked fine, so something was wrong with the machine. I called the Singing Machine customer service and I was told that this is a common complaint with this model, and that they did not think that my machine was any different from any other model 500. I asked if they got similar complaints with any other model, so that I would know which one to exchange this for, and they said this is the only one that seems to have this defect! I returned mine to Target, and plan to try another model. Do NOT buy this machine!