Speaker Test

How to run the speaker test

Press Start speaker test, then tap Left, Right or Both. Each tap plays about a second of noise on that side. Turn your volume down first and raise it from there.

• Left. You should hear it only from the left speaker or earbud.
• Right. Only from the right.
• Both. It should sound like it comes from the middle, evenly from each side.

The test needs no microphone and records nothing. It plays through whatever your computer or phone is using as its speaker right now. In Chrome or Edge on a computer you can switch to another speaker with Choose speaker.

Left and right: what to listen for

Three things can go wrong, and each sounds different.

1. Left and right are swapped. The Left tap comes out on the right. Check that the speaker cables are in the matching jacks, or that the earbuds aren't on the wrong ears. If the wiring is right, look for a swapped channel or balance setting in your sound settings.
2. One side is silent. Push the plug all the way in, then try another port or another cable. If the same side stays quiet on a second device, the speaker itself is the problem.
3. Both taps sound the same. Your device is sending mono. Some Bluetooth modes and some accessibility settings do this. Turn off mono audio in your sound settings and run the test again.

Sound test: no sound at all?

Work through these in order. Most speakers that seem dead are fine.

1. Check the volume and mute. Both the system volume and the volume knob or button on the speaker itself.
2. Check the browser tab. A muted tab shows a speaker icon with a line through it. Unmute it.
3. Check the output device. Your computer may be playing through a monitor, a Bluetooth device you forgot about, or a headset that's turned off. On Windows, right-click the speaker icon, choose Sound settings and pick your speakers under Output. On a Mac, open System Settings, then Sound, and choose them on the Output tab.
4. Reconnect Bluetooth speakers. Turn the speaker off and on, then reconnect it from your device's Bluetooth list.
5. Reload the page after changing the output so the test picks up the new device.

Frequency sweep and phase test

The sweep plays one tone that rises from 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz over 20 seconds. Press Stop when you can no longer hear it, and the test shows the frequency you stopped at. Most people lose the very top of that range, which is normal. Small speakers also play very little at the lowest end, so a sweep that starts out silent usually says more about the speaker's size than a fault.

The phase test plays the same noise twice. In phase should sound centered. Out of phase should sound wide and a little hollow. If it's the other way round, one speaker is wired backwards: swap the two wires on one speaker, matching red to red and black to black.