In order to improve the quality of speech signal and adaptability of cochlear implant under strong noise background, an improved method was proposed based on the combination of spectral subtraction and variable-step Least Mean Square error (LMS) adaptive filtering algorithm, and a speech enhancement hardware system for cochlear implant was constructed with this method. Concerning the problem of slow convergence rate and big steady-state error, the squared term of output error was used to adjust the step size of variable-step LMS adaptive filtering algorithm; besides, the combination of fixed and changed values of step was also considered, thus improved the adaptability and quality of speech signal. The speech enhancement hardware system for cochlear implant was composed of TMS320VC5416 and audio codec chip TLV320AIC23B, high-speed acquisition and real-time processing of voice data between TMS320VC5416 and TLV320AIC23B were realized by the interface of Muti-channel Buffered Serial Port (McBSP) and Serial Peripheral Interface (SPI).The Matlab simulation and test results prove that the proposed method has good performance in eliminating noise, the Signal-to-Noise Ratio (SNR) can be increased by about 10 dB in the case of low input SNR, and Perceptual Evaluation of Speech Quality (PESQ) score can be also greatly enhanced, the quality of the voice signal is improved effectively, and the system based on the proposed algorithm has stable performance which further improves the clarity and intelligibility of voice in cochlear implant.