Free tools / Speaker and headphone test

Speaker & Headphone Test

Play a tone through the left channel, the right channel or both, sweep from bass to treble, and take the left right quiz to check your headphones are the right way round.

FreeRuns in your browserNothing uploaded

Headphones on?Keep the volume low to begin with. Test tones sound louder than music at the same setting.

Channel

Tone

Volume40%

Now playing

LLeft

RRight

Silent. Press a channel button to play the selected tone.

Left right quiz

The tester plays a random side for a second. Say which side you heard.

0 of 0 correct

Start at a low volume, particularly on headphones. Test tones are pure and sound louder than music at the same setting. Sound starts only when you press a button. Everything runs locally in your browser and nothing is uploaded.

How to use the speaker and headphone test

1

Set the volume low. The slider starts at 40 per cent. Leave it there for the first tone, especially with headphones on, and raise it only if you need to.

2

Play left, then right, then both. Each button plays a tone through one channel. The indicator shows which side should be sounding. If you hear it on the other side, or on both, the wiring or the balance setting is wrong.

3

Try the three tones and the sweep. Bass at 100 Hz, mid at 1 kHz and treble at 8 kHz show how each speaker handles the range. The sweep runs from 20 Hz up to 16 kHz over ten seconds with the frequency on screen, so you can hear where a speaker drops out or buzzes.

4

Take the left right quiz. Press Play a side. The tester picks a channel at random and you say which one you heard. Five or six rounds is enough to be sure your headphones or speakers are the right way round.

What the results mean

Sound from one side only. On headphones, check the plug is pushed all the way in and try another pair. If a second pair behaves the same, the socket or the audio board is at fault. On laptop speakers, one channel silent usually means a failed speaker or a loose connector inside.

Left and right swapped. Headphones on the wrong way round, or a balance or channel-swap setting in the audio software. Turn the headphones round first, then check the sound settings on the machine.

Buzzing or rattling on the bass tone. A loose or damaged speaker cone, or something inside the case touching the speaker. Low tones show it up first. Laptop speakers are small and will not play 100 Hz loudly, so compare both sides rather than expecting deep bass.

Dropouts during the sweep. A tone that vanishes and returns as the frequency climbs points to a damaged driver or a fault in the amplifier. Silence above about 15 kHz is normal for adult hearing and not a fault.

No sound at all. Check the volume on the machine, the mute key and that the right output device is selected. If a pair of headphones works but the built-in speakers do not, the speakers or the audio board need looking at.

When laptop speakers are a repair job

Laptop speakers are small drivers held in the base of the machine and wired to the main board. Liquid, a drop or plain wear tears the cone or breaks the connector, and the symptom is a side that has gone quiet, a crackle at higher volume or a rattle on bass. A headphone socket that only works when the plug is held at an angle is a worn socket. All of these are fixed at our Kings Cross workshop on all the main laptop brands and on MacBook, with a free diagnosis, an exact quote before any work and No Fix No Fee.

Speaker crackling or one side silent?

Laptop and MacBook speaker and headphone socket faults diagnosed free at Kings Cross, open 24/7. Exact quote before any work, No Fix No Fee, UK-wide mail-in.

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Speaker and headphone test: your questions answered

Why does nothing play until I press a button?−

Browsers block sound until you interact with the page, to stop sites playing audio on their own. The tester starts its audio engine on your first click and every tone after that plays straight away.

Is the test safe for my headphones and my ears?+

Yes at a sensible volume. The tones are the same kind of signal audio engineers use to check equipment. Start at the default 40 per cent, keep it as low as you can hear clearly, and take headphones off before turning it up.

Can I use it to check a Bluetooth speaker or headphones?+

Yes. Connect them first, make sure they are the selected output on the machine, then run the tests. Bluetooth adds a short delay, so the indicator can be a fraction ahead of the sound.

What does the left right quiz tell me?+

Whether the sound is coming out of the side it is meant to. It is a quick way to catch headphones worn the wrong way round, swapped speaker cables or a balance setting that has been knocked.

Why can I not hear the top of the sweep?+

Hearing above 15 or 16 kHz fades with age, and small laptop speakers roll off before that anyway. As long as both sides behave the same, the speakers are fine.

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