--- title: "Speaker Test & Headphone Test: Left/Right, Bass & Phase" description: "Free online speaker and headphone test: left and right channels, phase, how low the bass goes and how high the treble reaches, and a 20 Hz to 20 kHz sweep." url: "https://theaudiostuff.com/tools/speaker-test/" type: "website" author: "Jakub Charkiewicz" --- > Markdown rendering of https://theaudiostuff.com/tools/speaker-test/ > Canonical URL to cite: https://theaudiostuff.com/tools/speaker-test/ > Generated from the published page. Text and links only; see the HTML for layout. Breadcrumb: [Home](https://theaudiostuff.com/) > [Tools](https://theaudiostuff.com/tools/) > Speaker & Headphone Test # Speaker & Headphone Test A speaker test and headphone test in one page: check that left and right come from the correct side, that a pair of speakers is wired in phase, how low the bass reaches and how high the treble goes, then sweep from 20 Hz to 20 kHz to find rattles and dropouts. Every test plays in your browser through the device you are listening on, with nothing to install, and each one says what you should hear. **Before you start:** turn your volume down, then up until the first test is comfortably audible. Every test stops by itself; Esc stops it sooner. -24 dBFS How loud this page plays, below digital full scale. Set your volume with it at -24 first. ## Left and right channel test {#spt-channel} Bursts of pink noise on one side at a time. Press a button and listen for where the sound comes from. - **You should hear**: Left only from the left speaker or the left ear cup, Right only from the right. Both should sound like one source, centered between the speakers or in the middle of your head. - **If it sounds wrong**: Sides reversed: swap the two cables at the amplifier or at the speakers, or turn the headphones round (the cups and plugs are marked L and R). One side silent or quiet: check that side's cable and connection, and the balance setting on your computer or phone. Both pulls to one side: check the balance setting and that you sit the same distance from each speaker. ## Speaker phase test: in phase or out of phase? {#spt-phase} The same pink noise in both channels. Out of phase flips the right channel upside down, the way a speaker wired backwards does. Switch between the two and compare. - **You should hear**: In phase sounds focused, sits in the middle and has full bass. Out of phase sounds spread out, hard to place and thin in the bass, and on headphones it can seem to come from inside or behind your head. - **If it sounds wrong**: If In phase sounds like the description of Out of phase, one speaker is wired backwards: its red (+) and black (-) leads are swapped at one end of one cable. Fix it at the speaker or amplifier terminals and test again. ## Bass test: how low do your speakers go? {#spt-bass} Sine tones at one-third-octave steps from 200 Hz down to 20 Hz, 2.5 seconds each. Or tap any step to hold it for 15 seconds. - **You should hear**: A clean, low tone that gets deeper and quieter step by step until it fades. The last step you can still hear as a tone is roughly where your system's bass ends. Small bookshelf speakers often fade between 40 and 60 Hz, and laptop and phone speakers above 100 Hz. - **If it sounds wrong**: A step turns into a buzz, a rattle or a higher pitch: something is vibrating or the driver has run out of travel. Turn it down. One step booms and the next nearly vanishes: in a room that is most often a [room mode](https://theaudiostuff.com/tools/room-mode-calculator/), and moving your seat changes it. ## Treble test: how high can you hear? {#spt-treble} Sine tones from 8 kHz up to 20 kHz, 2.5 seconds each. Or tap any step to hold it for 15 seconds. Keep the level where it is for this one. - **You should hear**: A thin, piercing tone that climbs and fades out. The highest step you hear is the lower of two limits: your hearing and your equipment. Most adults stop hearing somewhere around 15 to 17 kHz, and that limit falls with age. - **If it sounds wrong**: Never turn the volume up to hear a tone that has faded: it can still be loud enough to damage a tweeter or your ears. The top steps vanish on Bluetooth but not on a cable: the codec is trimming the highest frequencies. One side drops out sooner: try the steps with headphones the other way round to tell your ears from the gear. ## Frequency sweep: 20 Hz to 20 kHz {#spt-sweep} One tone gliding through the whole audible range in 30 seconds, or through the bass alone in 20, the classic rattle test. - **You should hear**: A smooth rise in pitch that fades in from the bottom and fades out at the top, with no sudden jumps in loudness and nothing buzzing along with it. - **If it sounds wrong**: Press Stop the moment you hear a rattle, a buzz or a sudden drop: the readout keeps the frequency it stopped at. A rattle at one frequency is usually something loose, from a grille or a shelf to a damaged driver, and a [steady tone at that frequency](https://theaudiostuff.com/tools/signal-generator/) helps you find it. ## What a speaker test by ear can and cannot tell you {#tprimer-title} Every test on this page asks your playback chain one question and lets your ears answer it. Is each channel coming out of the correct side? Do the two sides push and pull together? How far down and how far up does the sound reach before it fades? None of those needs a measurement microphone, because a wrong answer is easy to hear once you know what the right one sounds like. Two of the answers come out clearly every time. A swapped channel or a speaker wired backwards changes the sound in a way few listeners miss, and a cable fixes both. The other three are softer: how low and how high you hear depends on the speakers, the room, the volume and your own ears all at once. Treat them as a check that nothing is badly wrong, and as a way to hear where your system starts to struggle. A sine tone holds one frequency, which makes it the signal for finding limits and rattles. Pink noise spreads its energy evenly across the octaves and is easy to place in space, so the channel and phase tests play it in bursts. ### The ideas behind the controls {#tprimer-ideas} - **Phantom center**: When both speakers play the same signal at the same level, you hear one sound halfway between them. A center that pulls to one side points at a balance setting, an uneven distance to the two speakers or the room. - **Polarity**: Which way a driver moves for a positive signal. Two speakers wired the same way move together. Swap the + and - leads on one and they work against each other, and the bass and the center image suffer. - **[Bass extension](https://theaudiostuff.com/glossary/sub-bass/#bass-extension-and-bass-quantity)**: How low a speaker or headphone plays before its output falls away. The driver and the cabinet set it, and in a room the room changes it from one seat to the next. - **Equal loudness**: Hearing is far less sensitive at the extremes than in the midrange, so the lowest and highest tones need much more level to sound as loud as a 1 kHz tone at the same setting. ### Common mistakes {#tprimer-mistakes} - Turning the volume up to hear a tone that has faded. If you cannot hear a high tone, more volume reaches the tweeter and your ears long before it reaches your hearing. - Judging bass from one seat in a room. A step that vanishes where you sit can be loud a meter away. - Mistaking a buzz for bass. When a low step turns into a higher-pitched rattle, the speaker or something near it has given up at that level. - Confusing a channel swap with reversed polarity. A swap moves sounds to the wrong side; reversed polarity leaves them where they were and blurs them. - Testing over Bluetooth and blaming the speakers for what the codec trimmed from the top octave. ### What this tool cannot tell you {#tprimer-limits} - The page measures nothing. It sends known signals, and what reaches you has passed through the browser, the device, the amplifier, the speakers or headphones and the room. - It is not a hearing test: the levels are not calibrated, and it cannot separate a limit in your hearing from a limit in your gear. - Laptop and phone speakers, and a single earbud, often play both channels from almost the same point, so the stereo tests can sound centered even when the channels are right. ### Where the math comes from {#tprimer-sources} - [ISO 266: Preferred frequencies](https://www.iso.org/standard/1350.html) Standard International Organization for Standardization Paid full text The one-third-octave preferred frequencies, 20 Hz to 200 Hz, that the bass test steps through. - [HyperPhysics: Equal loudness curves](https://hyperphysics.gsu.edu/hbase/Sound/eqloud.html) Reference Georgia State University Why the lowest and highest steps sound quieter than the midrange at the same level, so a fading tone is no proof the speaker stopped. - [NYU perception lecture notes: Auditory pathways and sound localization](https://www.cns.nyu.edu/~david/courses/perception/lecturenotes/localization/localization.html) Lecture notes New York University How the ears place a sound from the level and timing differences between them, behind the phantom center and the blurred out-of-phase image. - [Stanford CCRMA: Synthesis of 1/f noise (pink noise)](https://ccrma.stanford.edu/~jos/sasp/Example_Synthesis_1_F_Noise.html) Reference Stanford University Pink noise as 1/f noise, equal energy per octave, the signal the channel and phase tests play in bursts. ## Speaker and headphone test FAQ. {#spt-faq-title} 1. ### How do I test my left and right speakers? {#spt-faq-how-do-i-test-my-left-and-right} Turn the system volume down, press Left and listen: the bursts should come only from the left speaker or the left ear cup. Then press Right. Alternate switches sides every 0.8 seconds, which makes a swap easy to hear. If the sides come out reversed, swap the two speaker cables at the amplifier or at the speakers, or check that the headphones are on the right way round, since the cups and plugs are marked L and R. If one side is silent or much quieter, check the cable and the connection on that side and the balance setting on your computer or phone. 2. ### How can I tell if my speakers are out of phase? {#spt-faq-how-can-i-tell-if-my-speakers-are} Play In phase, then Out of phase. With both speakers wired the same way, In phase sounds focused, sits in the middle between the speakers and has full bass, while Out of phase sounds spread out, hard to place and thin in the bass. If the two buttons sound the other way round, one speaker is wired backwards: its red (+) and black (-) leads are swapped at one end of one cable. Fix it at the speaker or amplifier terminals and play the test again. On headphones, Out of phase tends to sound as if it comes from inside or behind your head. 3. ### How low should my speakers go in the bass test? {#spt-faq-how-low-should-my-speakers-go-in-the} That depends on their size. Many small bookshelf speakers fade out somewhere between 40 and 60 Hz, larger floorstanders and subwoofers reach into the 20s and 30s, and laptop and phone speakers usually give out above 100 Hz. Over-ear headphones that seal well can play the lowest steps clearly. Note the last step that is still a clean, low tone. If a step turns into a buzz or a higher-pitched rattle, you are hearing distortion or something vibrating, and the speaker has run out of bass at that level. 4. ### Why can't I hear the highest test tones? {#spt-faq-why-can-t-i-hear-the-highest-test} The highest tone you hear is set by whichever gives out first: your hearing, the headphones or speakers, or the device playing them. Hearing above about 15 kHz fades with age for most adults, so missing 17 or 18 kHz is common and is no fault in the gear. Bluetooth can trim the top octave too, depending on the codec. Do not turn the volume up to chase a tone you cannot hear: a high tone you cannot hear can still be loud enough to damage a tweeter or your ears. 5. ### Is this a hearing test? {#spt-faq-is-this-a-hearing-test} No. It checks a playback system by ear, and your hearing is part of that system, but the levels it plays are not calibrated and it cannot tell your ears apart from your equipment. If you notice a change in your hearing, ringing that does not go away, or one ear hearing less than the other, see a doctor or an audiologist, who can measure your hearing properly. 6. ### Can test tones damage my speakers or headphones? {#spt-faq-can-test-tones-damage-my-speakers-or-headphones} At high volume, they can. A steady tone puts its energy into one driver at one frequency for as long as it plays, which music rarely does. Sustained high tones can overheat a tweeter, and loud low tones can push a small woofer past its safe travel. Start with the system volume low and this page at -24 dBFS, raise the volume only until the tones are clearly audible, and stop any test that rattles, buzzes or distorts. Every test here stops by itself. 7. ### Does it work on a phone, a laptop or Bluetooth headphones? {#spt-faq-does-it-work-on-a-phone-a-laptop} It plays through whatever your device is using for sound, so on a phone it tests the phone speaker until headphones are connected. Laptop and phone speakers sit too close together to show much stereo and cannot play deep bass, so the channel test and the treble test say more about them than the bass test does. Bluetooth works for every test, though the codec can trim the highest frequencies, and some earbuds play both channels in one bud when you wear only one. 8. ### Why does one bass tone sound much louder than the one next to it? {#spt-faq-why-does-one-bass-tone-sound-much-louder} Most often because of the room. Sound reflecting between the walls builds up at some low frequencies and cancels at others, so one step can boom while the next almost disappears, and moving your chair or the speakers changes which ones do it. The room mode calculator predicts those frequencies from your room's size. Headphones take the room out of it, so on headphones a big jump between neighboring steps points at the headphones themselves or at how well the pads seal. ## Related reviews and guides {#rt-editorial-title} - [Best Speakers](https://theaudiostuff.com/guides/best-speakers/) - [Speaker reviews](https://theaudiostuff.com/reviews/speakers/) - [Headphone reviews](https://theaudiostuff.com/reviews/headphones/) - [HIFIMAN HE1000se Scored 9.3 out of 10](https://theaudiostuff.com/reviews/hifiman-he1000se/) - [HIFIMAN Arya Organic Scored 9.2 out of 10](https://theaudiostuff.com/reviews/hifiman-arya-organic/) - [HIFIMAN Arya Unveiled Scored 9.1 out of 10](https://theaudiostuff.com/reviews/hifiman-arya-unveiled/) - [HIFIMAN Arya Organic vs HE1000se](https://theaudiostuff.com/compare/hifiman-arya-organic-vs-hifiman-he1000se/) - [HIFIMAN Arya Unveiled vs HE1000se](https://theaudiostuff.com/compare/hifiman-arya-unveiled-vs-hifiman-he1000se/) ## You might also use these tools {#rt-title} - Generator **Which test tone do you need?** [Online Tone Generator](https://theaudiostuff.com/tools/signal-generator/) Sine, square, triangle and sawtooth tones at any frequency or musical note, white, pink, brown, blue and violet noise, frequency sweeps, a channel test and a polarity check. Runs entirely in your browser. - Analyzer **Is this file really hi-res?** [FLAC & Hi-Res Audio Checker](https://theaudiostuff.com/tools/hires-audio-checker/) Drop any audio file and see its frequency content as an FFT spectrum: where the spectrum stops, and whether a sharp cutoff or a lossy source shows. - Calculator **Does digital volume hurt quality?** [Bit Depth Calculator: Digital Volume Loss](https://theaudiostuff.com/tools/bit-depth-calculator/) Find out how many bits of audio resolution you lose when lowering digital volume in Windows or macOS. Shows effective bit depth and noise floor rise.