Speaker test
Is left on the left? Check speakers and headphones in seconds.
Turn your volume down before you start, then raise it slowly — some tests are low and loud on big speakers.
200 → 20 Hz
Play both and compare. With correctly wired speakers, “in phase” sounds fuller and centred between them, and “out of phase” sounds thin and hard to place. If it’s the other way round, one speaker is wired backwards: swap + and − on one of them.
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This tool runs entirely in your browser. What you type, play or record here stays on your device: nothing is uploaded or saved on a server.
Example
Example: checking a gaming headset’s left and right and how low its bass goes
Before an online game where footsteps tell you where the other players are, a new wired headset goes into a laptop. System volume at about 30% and the test sound on Voice-like, a buzzy sound with the range of a voice, not speech. Each button plays for a fixed time; the bass sweep shows its frequency in large figures.
- Press Left, Center and Right, or the L, C and R keys: 2 seconds each. Left must come only from the left earcup; if both play it, mono audio is probably on in the accessibility settings.
- The left ↔ right sweep takes 6 seconds: hard left at the start, the middle at 1.5 s, hard right at 3 s, the middle again at 4.5 s, back to the left. It should glide, not jump.
- The bass sweep falls from 200 to 20 Hz in 8 seconds, the same time for each octave. Press Stop as the rumble fades: the figure stays on screen.
| Seconds into the bass sweep | Frequency | For comparison |
|---|---|---|
| 0 s | 200 Hz | start |
| 1 s | 150 Hz | phone and small laptop speakers fade around here |
| 2.4 s | 100 Hz | — |
| 4.2 s | 60 Hz | good headphones reach 40–60 Hz |
| 5 s | 47 Hz | where this headset fades |
| 6.6 s | 30 Hz | subwoofer range |
| 8 s | 20 Hz | end |
The rumble fades about 5 seconds in and the figure stops at 47 Hz, a normal result for a headset. Had it faded near 150 Hz, the sound would most likely be coming from the laptop’s own speakers: check which output device is selected.
How it works
- Turn the volume down, then press Left, Center and Right (or the L, C and R keys): each sound should come only from that side.
- Press the left ↔ right sweep to hear the sound travel smoothly between the speakers or earcups.
- Press the bass sweep and note where the rumble fades — that is how low your speakers go. Compare In phase and Out of phase to check the wiring.
Frequently asked questions
- My left and right are swapped — what now?
- On headphones, check you are wearing them the right way (L on the left ear). On speakers, swap the two cables at the amplifier or computer, or change the balance setting in your system’s sound settings.
- I hear the sound on both sides — is my headset broken?
- Probably not: “mono audio” may be turned on in your phone or computer’s accessibility settings, or the device itself is mono. A Bluetooth speaker with one driver is always mono.
- How low should the bass sweep go?
- Phones and small laptops fade out around 150–300 Hz, good headphones and bookshelf speakers around 40–60 Hz, a subwoofer down to 20–30 Hz. Stop the sweep when you no longer hear it to read the frequency.
- What does the phase test check?
- Whether both speakers push the air the same way. If one is wired + to −, bass disappears and the sound feels vague — out of phase then sounds fuller than in phase.
- How long does each test play?
- Left, Center and Right play for 2 seconds each, the left ↔ right sweep and each phase test for 6 seconds, and the bass sweep for 8 seconds, falling from 200 Hz by the same time per octave: 100 Hz at about 2.4 s, 50 Hz at about 4.8 s. Stop ends any of them early.
- Which test sound should I choose?
- Voice-like, a buzzy sound with the range of a voice, is the easiest to place between the speakers. Tone, a pure 1 kHz note, makes a missing or weak side obvious. Pink noise covers every frequency at once, a bit like rain, and shows up a side that sounds tinny or muffled.
- Is anything recorded?
- No. The sounds are generated in your browser; the microphone is not used.