Sound test for speakers and headphones

What each test checks

• Left and right: that both sides work and aren't swapped. Headphones marked L and R should play the left chime in your left ear.
• Crackling and distortion: low notes that slowly get louder, to find the volume where a speaker starts to crackle or rattle.
• Frequency sweep: a tone that rises from 20 Hz (felt more than heard) to 20 kHz. Where it fades in and out shows the range your speakers or headphones play.
• Hearing check: beeps from 8 kHz to 20 kHz, to see roughly how high you can hear.
• Bass: how low your speakers go. Rattling or buzzing at one frequency usually means something loose in the speaker or in the room.
• Speaker phase: whether two speakers push air in the same direction. If one is wired backwards, bass gets thin and the sound seems to come from nowhere in particular.
• Surround sound: each speaker of a 5.1 or 7.1 system in turn, to check they're all connected and in the right place.
• Tone generator: any single frequency, for hunting down rattles or checking a subwoofer.

No sound? Try these fixes

Check the browser tab

A tab can be muted on its own. In Chrome and Edge, right-click the tab and choose Unmute site. Also check that the volume slider above isn't at zero.

Windows

1. Click the speaker icon in the taskbar and check the volume and the selected output device.
2. Open Settings > System > Sound > Volume mixer and make sure your browser isn't turned down or sending sound to a different device.

Mac

1. Open System Settings > Sound > Output and choose your speakers or headphones.
2. Check that the output volume is up and Mute is off.

Bluetooth headphones

Make sure they're connected to this device and not to your phone. If the sound is suddenly poor, a call app may have switched them to headset mode; close the app and reconnect.

Sound comes from the wrong device

Your computer plays sound through one output at a time, and it switches on its own: plugging in a monitor or TV over HDMI, or Bluetooth headphones connecting, often takes over. Many monitors have weak speakers or none at all, so the sound seems to vanish.

• Windows: click the speaker icon in the taskbar, then the arrow next to the volume slider, and pick the output. Or open Settings > System > Sound and choose it under Output.
• Mac: open Control Center > Sound, or System Settings > Sound > Output, and pick the device.
• Apps with their own setting, like Zoom, Teams and Discord, can play through a different device from everything else. See the fixes for each app below.

Sound only on one side

1. Check the balance. On a Mac, open System Settings > Sound > Output and put the Balance slider in the middle. On Windows, open Settings > System > Sound, click your output and check the left and right channel volumes are the same.
2. Turn off mono audio. It mixes both sides into one. On Windows it's in Settings > Accessibility > Audio; on a Mac, System Settings > Accessibility > Audio (“Play stereo audio as mono”).
3. Push the plug all the way in. A headphone plug that's half in often plays one side only, or music without the voices.
4. Find out what's faulty. Try the headphones on another device, or swap the left and right speaker cables. If the silent side moves with the headphones or speaker, they're faulty; if it stays on the same side, it's the computer, the cable or the port.
5. Wireless earbuds: check the silent one is charged, gently clean its speaker mesh, and pair them again.

Left and right are swapped

With headphones, check that you're wearing them the right way round: look for small L and R marks. With speakers, swap the cables or move the speakers.

Speakers crackling? What it means

The crackle test tells you at what volume the crackling starts. Run it again with headphones held close to your ear, because that shows where the fault is:

• Speakers and headphones both crackle: it's the computer. On Windows, turn off Audio enhancements (Settings > System > Sound > your output), update the sound driver, and close heavy programs: crackling that comes and goes with a busy computer is the driver struggling to keep up. On a Mac, restart it. With Bluetooth, move closer and away from Wi-Fi routers.
• Only the speakers crackle, at moderate volume: wiggle the cable and the plug, try another port, and check the left and right test: if only one speaker crackles, swap the cables to see if the crackle follows the speaker. A speaker that buzzes or sounds fuzzy at any volume is usually damaged and needs repair or replacing.
• Crackling only near full volume: that's the speaker's limit, especially on laptops. Turn the volume down a little, or turn off bass boost: deep bass makes small speakers distort first.

About the hearing check

The hearing check plays beeps from 8 kHz up to 20 kHz and stops at the first one you can't hear. Hearing for high tones fades with age and with years of loud noise, so the highest tone you hear is a rough guide. As a very rough rule:

• 19 to 20 kHz: mostly teenagers and people in their early twenties.
• 17 to 18 kHz: most people under about 25.
• 16 kHz: most people under about 30.
• 15 kHz: most people under about 40.
• 14 kHz: typical in your 40s.
• 12 kHz: typical around 50.
• 8 to 10 kHz: common from about 60.

People vary a lot, and your speakers or headphones may stop before your ears do: many laptop speakers and Bluetooth connections cut the highest tones. Use wired headphones at a comfortable volume in a quiet room.

This isn't a medical hearing test. It only checks the highest tones, while a real hearing test measures how quietly you can hear the tones of speech. If you often ask people to repeat themselves, turn the TV up more than others like, or have ringing in your ears, see a doctor or audiologist.

Testing 5.1 and 7.1 surround

A browser only plays surround sound when your computer's output is set up for it. Otherwise the test reports 2 channels.

• Windows: press Windows+R, type mmsys.cpl, select your receiver or speakers on the Playback tab, press Configure and choose 5.1 or 7.1 Surround. Then reload this page in Chrome or Edge.
• Mac: open Audio MIDI Setup, select the output and press Configure Speakers.
• Gaming headsets with “7.1 surround” are usually stereo headsets that create the surround effect in their own software, so they show up here as 2 channels. That's normal.
• Sound from the wrong speaker means swapped cables or a wrong speaker setup on the receiver. No hum from the subwoofer? Check that it's switched on and that the receiver's speaker setup says it has one.

Testing a phone's speakers

• Turn off silent mode first. On an iPhone, a page may play nothing while the phone is on silent. Then turn the volume up.
• Hold the phone sideways for the left and right test. Many phones, including every iPhone since the iPhone 7, use the earpiece at the top and the speaker at the bottom as a stereo pair, so the test checks both. If one side stays silent, that speaker is blocked or faulty.
• Muffled or quiet? Take the case off and brush the speaker openings gently with a soft, dry brush: lint often blocks the earpiece.
• After water, sound is often muffled until the speaker dries. Don't push anything into the openings or use heat; give it time.

Questions

Checking your microphone too? Try the mic test, or check camera, mic and speakers together with the camera and mic test.