Speaker test

How to test your speakers

1. Set the volume of your computer, phone or amplifier low, then press Left. The sound should come only from the left speaker. Do the same with Right, then Both; Left → right → both plays the three in turn.
2. Use Soft noise to locate each speaker: noise is easier to place than a pure tone. Switch to Tone if you prefer a steady 440 Hz beep.
3. Press In phase, then Out of phase, and compare (see below).
4. Run the Bass sweep and the Full sweep at a moderate volume and listen for buzzing, rattling or crackling.
5. For a home-theatre or surround setup, press Check surround output.

Left and right: what a correct result sounds like

Each button should play only from the speaker it names. Common results:

• Left and right are swapped: the speaker cables, the speakers themselves or a balance or swap-channels setting in your system or audio software are reversed.
• The same sound comes from both speakers: the output is in mono. Look for a mono audio option in your accessibility settings, or check whether the speaker is a single unit or a soundbar that mixes everything to one channel.
• One side is silent: check the cable and connector for that side, the balance setting, and try the other output on your device. If the silent side follows the speaker when you swap them over, the speaker is the problem; if it stays on the same side, it is the cable, amplifier or source.

Phase (polarity) check

A speaker has a + and a − terminal. If one speaker is wired the other way round, it pushes while the other pulls, and bass partly cancels out. Play In phase and then Out of phase while sitting between the speakers. In phase, the low tone should sound fuller and come from the middle. Out of phase it sounds thinner, wider or hard to place. If the out-of-phase button sounds fuller to you, check the + and − wiring of one speaker. The effect is clearest with two separate speakers; on a laptop or phone it can be very subtle.

Bass, rattles and a possibly blown speaker

The bass sweep rises from 20 to 200 Hz, where loose parts, grilles and damaged cones most often buzz. The full sweep runs from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Use the single tone slider to stay at a frequency where you heard a problem and confirm it.

• A rattle that comes from a desk, shelf or loose screw changes when you touch or move the object.
• A torn or blown speaker tends to buzz or distort at the same frequencies on every sweep, even at moderate volume, and often sounds the same with any music.
• Small speakers in laptops and phones cannot play deep bass at all: hearing nothing at the bottom of the sweep is normal, not a fault.

This page does not measure frequency response, loudness or distortion. Your ears and your room decide what you hear, so compare with another speaker or a known-good pair when in doubt.

Surround sound and subwoofer

Browsers can only address surround speakers when the system output is set to 5.1 or 7.1 and the browser reports more than two output channels. Press Check surround output: if more channels are available, a button appears for each one (front left, front right, centre, subwoofer, surround left, surround right, and any extra channels). The subwoofer button plays a low 50 Hz tone. If the page reports two channels, set your audio device to 5.1 or 7.1 in your system sound settings and reload. Many TVs, soundbars and receivers that decode surround from films do not expose separate channels to the browser at all.

If you hear nothing

• Check that the page is not muted in the browser tab and that the right output device is selected in your system sound settings.
• On Bluetooth speakers, make sure the speaker is connected and selected as the output, not just paired.
• Press the button again after the page has loaded: browsers only start audio after you click or tap.
• Try headphones. If they work, the problem is with the speakers, cable or output; if they do not, it is the device or its settings. For headphones and earbuds, use the headphone test.