Yes, a Bluetooth speaker and a wired speaker can play through the same Mac at once. It is a normal Multi-Output Device combination: pair the Bluetooth speaker first, then build the group in Audio MIDI Setup with both devices ticked. No special software required, though the mix behaves a little differently to two wired speakers.
This is one of the more common speaker setups people ask about: a wired speaker or soundbar already sitting on the desk, plus a portable Bluetooth speaker added for a second room or a bit more spread. Audio MIDI Setup does not care that one of them is wireless. It just needs the Bluetooth speaker connected before you build the group, and from there the two are ticked into the same list exactly the same way as any other pair of outputs. Nothing about the combination is unsupported or unusual; it is the same Multi-Output Device feature macOS has shipped for years, just fed one wired device and one wireless one instead of two of the same kind.
How do you group a Bluetooth speaker and a wired speaker on a Mac?
Pair the Bluetooth speaker first, in System Settings > Bluetooth. Once it shows as Connected, macOS treats it as just another audio output, no different from a wired one, and it appears in Audio MIDI Setup's device list ready to tick alongside the wired speaker. Trying to build the group before pairing is the most common reason the Bluetooth speaker seems to be missing: Audio MIDI Setup only lists outputs macOS currently knows about, so an unpaired or disconnected speaker simply will not be there to tick.
- Open Audio MIDI Setup. It lives in Applications, inside the Utilities folder, or press Command and Space and type the name.
- Click the + button at the bottom left of the device list and choose Create Multi-Output Device.
- On the right, tick Use next to both the wired speaker and the Bluetooth speaker.
- The device at the top of the ticked list is the primary one, the clock the rest follow. Keep the wired speaker as primary rather than the Bluetooth speaker, for the reason below.
- Tick Drift Correction for the Bluetooth speaker, since it is not the primary device.
- Double-click the new device's name to rename it. Something like Desk Setup is easier to spot later than Multi-Output Device.
- Select it as your output, either in System Settings under Sound, or by holding Option and clicking the volume icon in the menu bar.
If the Bluetooth speaker drops out of range or goes to sleep to save power, macOS quietly removes it from the group rather than pausing playback, and it does not always add itself back automatically once it reconnects. Reopening Audio MIDI Setup and re-ticking the Use box next to it is usually all that is needed to restore the pair.
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Download for MacWhich speaker should be the primary, wired or Bluetooth?
If you have to choose, keep the wired speaker as primary and leave Drift Correction off for it. A wired connection, whether built-in, USB or a headphone jack, holds a more precise, steadier clock than Bluetooth, which buffers audio in larger, more variable chunks to cope with changing radio conditions. Tick Drift Correction on the Bluetooth speaker instead, so macOS is correcting the less stable clock against the more stable one, not the other way round. Setting a Bluetooth speaker as primary means every correction happens against a moving target, which is the setup most likely to sound rough.
Can you add more than two speakers to the same group?
Yes. A Multi-Output Device is not limited to a pair; a Bluetooth speaker, a wired speaker and, say, the Mac's own built-in speaker can all sit in the same group at once, ticked in exactly the way described above. The tradeoff is that every extra device is another clock for macOS to keep in step, and Bluetooth already carries the biggest drift risk in the group. Adding a third or fourth device on top of a wired-plus-Bluetooth pair raises that risk further, so it is worth including only the devices that are actually doing useful work in that particular group, rather than leaving old ones ticked out of habit.
Can you set separate volumes for the Bluetooth speaker and the wired speaker?
Not with the free route. A Multi-Output Device has no shared volume of its own to control, only the two real devices inside it, each with its own Master slider in Audio MIDI Setup. A Bluetooth speaker and a wired speaker rarely sit at the same loudness for the same setting, a small portable Bluetooth speaker is often noticeably louder or quieter than a wired desk speaker at an identical volume, so balancing them means opening Audio MIDI Setup, selecting each device in turn, and adjusting its slider by ear, then repeating that whenever either speaker's natural volume changes. There is no group-wide balance control macOS gives you for free, and no way to save the ratio you land on for next time.
Chorus keeps this specific limit in mind. It builds the same underlying group Audio MIDI Setup does, but adds a real per-device balance on top, so the Bluetooth speaker can sit lower than the wired one and that ratio holds every time you switch to the group again, rather than resetting each time the group is rebuilt. It does not change the clock the two speakers share, so it will not fix a genuine stutter if one shows up, that still has to be resolved in Audio MIDI Setup first. What it removes is the manual rebalancing, not the underlying audio mechanism macOS provides.
For the full pairing and troubleshooting detail, see Apple's own guide to connecting Bluetooth devices.
Frequently asked questions
Can I connect a Bluetooth speaker and a wired speaker to my Mac at the same time?
Yes. Pair the Bluetooth speaker first, then open Audio MIDI Setup, create a Multi-Output Device, and tick both the wired output and the Bluetooth speaker in the list. macOS sends the same audio stream to both at once, the same way it does for any Multi-Output Device.
How do I group a Bluetooth speaker and a wired speaker into one output on a Mac?
Open Audio MIDI Setup (Applications > Utilities), click the + button and choose Create Multi-Output Device, then tick both devices in the right-hand list. Select the new Multi-Output Device from the Sound menu or System Settings > Sound to send audio to both speakers together.
Why does audio stutter when I combine a Bluetooth speaker with a wired speaker?
Bluetooth output uses a larger, more variable buffer and a coarser clock than a wired connection, so it tends to drift against the wired device and needs correcting more often. That correction is what you hear as a stutter. See our guide to why audio stutters on a Multi-Output Device for the full explanation and the fix.
Which speaker should be the primary device, the Bluetooth one or the wired one?
Keep the wired speaker as the primary and leave Drift Correction off for it, since a wired connection holds a more stable clock. Tick Drift Correction on the Bluetooth speaker instead, so macOS corrects the less stable clock against the more stable one rather than the other way round.
Can I set different volumes for the Bluetooth speaker and the wired speaker?
Not with a plain Multi-Output Device. Audio MIDI Setup gives the group no shared volume control at all, and a Bluetooth speaker is usually louder or quieter than a wired one at the same setting, so there is no built-in way to balance them against each other. Chorus adds a real per-device balance to the group so each speaker can be levelled independently.
