How to test your speakers or headphones
Start with the volume low. Press Play left → right test: a voice announces each channel and a short chime follows on that channel alone — left, then centre, then right, then both. You can also press any speaker tile on its own, or use the keys L, C and R. The coloured bars under the tiles show exactly what the page is sending to each channel, so you can separate a software problem from a hardware one: if the right bar moves and your right speaker stays silent, the fault is in the cable, the connector, a balance setting or the speaker itself.
Centre sends the same signal to both channels, so on a correctly set-up pair it should appear to float in the middle. Both sends two different signals, which should sound wide and fill the space. Switch the signal to pink noise for a denser sound that makes position easier to judge, especially on headphones.
The spoken announcements are short recordings of a British voice (a public-domain voice model, rendered once and bundled with the page) and they are routed exactly like the test tone, so the word “left” comes only out of the left speaker — the voice alone proves which side is which. If that small file can’t load, the page falls back to your browser’s speech voice, which plays on both sides, and the chime that follows remains the real test. Every test signal is synthesised live with the Web Audio API.
To send the test to a different device — headphones instead of speakers, say — use the output button next to the volume. Firefox opens its own device picker without asking for the microphone. Chrome and Edge only reveal output devices to a site that has microphone or camera permission, so the page asks once, stops the microphone immediately and records nothing; decline and the test simply follows your system’s default output.
Using the sweep and tone generator
The sweep glides from 20 Hz to 20 kHz over twenty seconds on a logarithmic curve, so each octave gets the same time. Most laptop and phone speakers produce nothing useful below 150–200 Hz; decent desktop speakers reach 50–70 Hz; a subwoofer or good headphones go down to 20–30 Hz. At the top, many adults stop hearing somewhere between 12 and 16 kHz.
| Range | What to listen for |
|---|---|
| 20–60 Hz (sub-bass) | Felt more than heard. Buzzing or flapping means the driver is bottoming out — lower the volume. |
| 60–250 Hz (bass) | Room resonances make some notes boom and others vanish; that is the room, not the speaker. |
| 250 Hz–6 kHz (mids) | Should be smooth. A rattle at one frequency is a loose panel, screw or grille. |
| 6–20 kHz (treble) | Dropouts or harshness point to a damaged tweeter. |
Drag the slider at any time, during a sweep or not, to hold a single frequency, or use the presets. A held tone is ideal for hunting down a rattle: find the frequency that triggers it, then press on panels until it stops. Choose L or R to sweep one speaker at a time, Sweep down to run from treble to bass, and square, triangle or sawtooth waves when you want harmonics that make distortion easier to hear. Keep the volume modest — pure tones carry more energy than music and can damage small drivers.
The bass test sweeps slowly from 200 Hz down to 20 Hz; press the button the moment the note fades and it reports roughly where your speakers’ bass stops, with the 40 Hz and 50 Hz presets for shaking out rattles. The latency test plays a click each second with a flash, shows the delay your browser reports, and lets you slide the flash until it lines up — Bluetooth headphones typically add 100–300 ms that browsers don’t always report. You can also play your own music: the file is decoded on your device and played through the same output and meters.
Polarity, stereo width and surround
Polarity is whether both speaker cones push outwards together. If one is wired with red and black swapped, bass cancels between them and the stereo image turns vague. Play In phase, then Out of phase: in phase should sound solid and centred with more bass; out of phase sounds hollow and seems to come from everywhere or inside your head. If your system sounds better on the out-of-phase setting, swap the wires on one speaker. Alternate switches every two seconds so you can compare without clicking.
The stereo widening demo plays a loop through a mid/side matrix. At 0% everything collapses to mono in the centre; 100% is the original stereo; beyond that the difference between channels is exaggerated so sound spreads past the speakers. It shows how widening effects work — and why pushing them too far makes a mix sound phasey.
If your output reports six or more channels, surround buttons appear for each 5.1 or 7.1 channel, including the subwoofer (LFE), which gets low-pass-filtered noise. Browsers only report multichannel output when the system is configured for it, and channel order can vary between drivers and AV receivers.
The hearing-range test, and its limits
The hearing test plays short beeps starting at 20 kHz and stepping down to 8 kHz. Press I can hear it, or Space, the moment you hear them. The result is the highest frequency you detected. Hearing above 17 kHz is typical under about 25; the upper limit falls with age, to around 15 kHz by 40 and 12 kHz by the mid-fifties, and noise exposure lowers it further.
This is not a medical hearing test. It measures your equipment as much as your ears: many laptop speakers and Bluetooth headphones roll off above 15–16 kHz, and background noise masks quiet tones. Use wired headphones at a comfortable level, run it twice, and treat the answer as a rough guide. If you notice ringing, muffled hearing or difficulty following conversation, speak to an audiologist or your GP.
Everything runs locally in your browser; see our privacy policy. Testing a full call set-up? Try the microphone test and the webcam test as well.
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no sound at all?
Browsers only start audio after you click, so press a test button rather than waiting. Then check your system volume and output device, and that the tab is not muted (right-click the tab). On iPhone, older iOS versions silence web audio when the ring/silent switch is on silent; the level bars moving without sound confirms the problem is outside the browser.
The left sound comes from the right. What's wrong?
Your channels are swapped. On headphones, check you are wearing them the right way round (look for L and R marks). On speakers, swap the cables at the amplifier or the speakers themselves. Also check the balance setting in your system sound settings and any audio software such as Dolby, Sonic or virtual surround, which can remap channels.
Can I use this to test 5.1 or 7.1 surround sound?
Yes, when your browser reports multichannel output. Set your operating system's speaker configuration to 5.1 or 7.1 first, reload the page and play any sound: individual channel buttons appear, including the subwoofer. If only stereo is reported, the browser is downmixing, which is common on laptops and many HDMI set-ups.
Is the frequency sweep safe for my speakers?
At moderate volume, yes. Pure tones concentrate energy at one frequency, so very low bass at high volume can overdrive small woofers and very high tones can overheat tweeters. Start quiet, raise the volume gradually, and stop if you hear buzzing, flapping or harsh distortion. Protect your own ears too, especially on headphones.
What does the polarity test tell me?
Whether both speakers move in the same direction for the same signal. If they are in phase, the test noise sounds focused, centred and fuller. If one speaker is wired backwards, the 'in phase' setting will sound hollow and the 'out of phase' setting will sound better. Fix it by swapping the positive and negative wires on one speaker.
Why can't I hear the highest tones in the hearing test?
High-frequency hearing declines naturally with age and noise exposure, so most adults stop hearing somewhere between 12 and 17 kHz. Your equipment matters as well: many laptop speakers and Bluetooth headphones cut off around 15–16 kHz. The test is a rough guide, not a medical assessment.
How do I switch between headphones and speakers?
Use the output button beside the volume. Firefox shows its own list of devices straight away. Chrome and Edge only list outputs after a site has microphone permission, so the page asks once and stops the microphone immediately without recording. Safari doesn’t let pages pick an output, so change it in your system’s sound settings or Control Centre and the test follows.