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Speaker Test Online
Use this free speaker test to check your speakers or headphones. Test the left and right channels separately, play a tone at any frequency from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, run a full frequency sweep, and check the stereo balance — all in your browser, with no downloads and no sign-up.
Before you start: turn your volume up, and make sure your speakers or headphones are connected and selected as the output device. Browsers block sound until you press a button, so nothing plays until you start a test. If you hear nothing, check the tab is not muted and silent mode is off on a phone.
Ready — press a test button to play sound.
How to test your speakers
Start with the channel test — a dead or swapped channel is the most common speaker problem. Press Left speaker: the tone should come only from the speaker on your left. Then press Right speaker and check the other side. Finally press Both speakers and confirm the sound sits in the middle. If one side is silent, the cause is usually a loose cable, a broken plug, or a balance control pushed to one side. If the sound comes from the opposite side to the button you pressed, the left and right cables are swapped.
Next, test the frequency range. The slider and the frequency box both set the tone, from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. A tone of 440 Hz is a good middle reference — the A note orchestras tune to — and it should sound clear on any working speaker. Try the presets to jump between 60 Hz (deep bass), 1,000 Hz (midrange) and 10,000 Hz (treble). Small laptop speakers often fade out below about 200 Hz, so faint low tones on a laptop are a limit of the tiny speaker, not a fault.
The frequency sweep is the fastest way to find a problem. It glides from your start frequency to your end frequency over 5, 10, 20 or 30 seconds. Listen for spots where the tone suddenly gets quieter, buzzes, rattles, or disappears — a quiet patch means the speaker is weak at that frequency, and a rattle usually means something is loose in the cabinet or a nearby object is vibrating. The balance slider moves the sound between the channels, useful if one speaker sits further away than the other.
How it works
This speaker test uses the Web Audio API, built into every modern browser. When you press a button, the page creates an oscillator — a sound source that generates a pure tone at the exact frequency you chose, with no audio files to download. The tone passes through a volume control and a stereo panner, which sends it to the left speaker, the right speaker, or both. Everything is generated in your browser, so the test works offline once the page has loaded, and nothing is recorded or sent anywhere.
The tone type matters for what you hear. The default sine wave is a pure, smooth tone with only one frequency, which makes rattles and drop-outs easy to hear. Triangle is close to sine but slightly richer, while square and sawtooth add harmonics and sound harsher — useful for stress-testing, but start with sine for a normal check. The volume slider controls the test tone only, not your system volume.
Human hearing covers roughly 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz, but the range shrinks with age — most adults over 40 cannot hear much above 15,000 Hz, and that is normal hearing, not a speaker fault. Frequencies below about 100 Hz are felt as much as heard, which is why a subwoofer or a large speaker is needed to reproduce them. With headphones the channel test is even more precise, since each ear gets its own channel.
Worked example
Imagine you have just set up a pair of desktop speakers and want to check them before a video call.
Step 1: Turn the volume up to a comfortable level and press Left speaker. A 440 Hz tone plays from the left speaker only — good.
Step 2: Press Right speaker. The tone moves to the right speaker — good.
Step 3: Press Both speakers. The tone sits in the middle — the channels are wired correctly.
Step 4: Run a 10-second sweep from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz. The tone rises smoothly; it is faint below 150 Hz (normal for small desktop speakers), clear through the middle, and fades above 16,000 Hz (normal hearing limit for many adults).
Step 5: Play a 100 Hz tone and then a 1,000 Hz tone at the same volume. Both are about equally loud, with no buzzing — the speakers pass.
If instead the sweep had gone quiet between 2,000 and 4,000 Hz, or the left channel had buzzed at 100 Hz, that would point to a real fault worth investigating.
FAQ
Why can't I hear anything from the speaker test?
First check the obvious things: turn your volume up, make sure your speakers or headphones are plugged in and selected as the output device, and check that the browser tab is not muted. Browsers also block sound until you interact with the page, so press a test button first — sound will not start on its own. If you still hear nothing, try a different browser or a different pair of speakers.
How do I know if my left and right speakers are swapped?
Press the Left speaker button and listen to which side the sound comes from. If the tone comes out of the speaker on your right, the channels are swapped. The usual fix is to swap the speaker cables at the back of the amplifier or computer, or swap the left and right plugs on a wired headset. In a car's audio settings, a reversed balance slider can also cause it.
What frequencies should my speakers be able to play?
Most people hear from about 20 Hz to about 20,000 Hz, and a good pair of speakers should cover most of that range. Small laptop speakers often fade out below 200 Hz, so you may not hear the lowest tones on them — that is normal. If a tone around 1,000 Hz is much quieter than the tones around it, or one channel is quieter than the other, that points to a speaker or connection problem.
Is this speaker test safe for my speakers?
Yes, at normal listening volume. The test uses a plain sine tone at a moderate level, which is gentle on speakers. Keep the volume at a comfortable level, especially for very low or very high frequencies, and do not run a loud low-frequency tone for a long time on small speakers — a short burst of a few seconds is all you need to check each frequency.
Does the speaker test work on a phone?
Yes. The test runs in the browser, so it works on phones, tablets, laptops and desktops. On a phone, make sure silent mode is off and the media volume is turned up — the ring volume does not control browser sound. For a proper channel test, use wired or wireless headphones, since a phone's built-in speakers are close together and hard to tell apart.