Free Online Speaker Test

Reading the sweeps second by second

To test your speakers, play the Left chime and then the Right, and check that each comes only from its own side. The sweeps then tell you how low your speakers go and where they rattle, because both rise at a steady number of octaves per second. Count the seconds from the moment you press the button, note when the tone appears, fades or buzzes, and read the frequency from the tables below.

Bass sweep: 30 to 250 Hz in six seconds

The bass sweep climbs about one octave every two seconds. Most of what you hear here is felt as much as heard, so listen and also put a hand on the speaker or the desk.

Full range sweep: 20 Hz to 20 kHz in twelve seconds

The full sweep covers ten octaves, about one every 1.2 seconds. A count by ear can be a quarter of a second off, which moves the reading by about a fifth of an octave, so read each answer as a neighborhood.

What each frequency range carries

The ranges in the table are the bands that sound engineers use when they talk about tone and EQ. Knowing which band a problem sits in tells you what music it will spoil.

What a healthy sweep sounds like

A good speaker plays a sweep as one smooth rising tone. Its loudness wobbles a little, because rooms and ears are uneven, and the very top fades when your hearing stops. Three things point to a problem.

• A rattle or buzz at one point. Something vibrates at that frequency, such as a loose grille, a screw or an object on the desk. Move nearby things away and repeat the sweep. If the buzz stays, it is inside the speaker.
• A deep hole at one frequency. In a room, this is usually sound reflected off a wall canceling the direct sound. Move the speaker or your chair, and the hole moves with it.
• A tone that turns harsh or doubled. That is distortion. Turn the volume down. If it still distorts at a low level, the speaker may be damaged.

Fixing silent, swapped or lopsided sound

Output, balance and mono settings by system

A left and right test only works when the system sends two separate channels. Two settings quietly undo that: a balance slider pushed to one side, and mono audio, an accessibility option that mixes both channels into each speaker.

Windows 11

Settings ▸ System ▸ Sound lists the outputs at the top. Choose your speakers or headphones there, then open the device’s properties, where the Left channel and Right channel sliders should match. The Mono audio switch is in Settings ▸ Accessibility ▸ Audio, and per-app volume is in Settings ▸ System ▸ Sound ▸ Volume mixer.

Mac

System Settings ▸ Sound ▸ Output lists the devices and has a Balance slider, which belongs in the middle. Play stereo audio as mono is in System Settings ▸ Accessibility ▸ Audio.

iPhone and iPad

Settings ▸ Accessibility ▸ Audio & Visual has the Mono Audio switch and a balance slider between L and R. With AirPods, Spatial Audio can blur a one-sided chime, so turn it off from the volume control in Control Center while you test.

Android phones

Most phones keep Mono audio and an audio balance slider under Settings ▸ Accessibility, in a section named Audio adjustment or Hearing enhancements, depending on the maker.

Checking polarity with the Both chime

Each passive speaker has a positive and a negative terminal. If one speaker’s wires are reversed, its cone moves out while the other moves in, and the two cancel each other’s bass. This is reversed polarity, also called speakers out of phase.

Sit centered between the speakers and play Both. With correct wiring, the chime comes from one clear point between them. Out of phase, it sounds wide and vague, as if it came from everywhere at once. Then run the bass sweep. Reversed speakers sound thin all the way through, and the bass grows when you lean toward one speaker.

To fix it, match the terminals. Red on the amplifier goes to red on each speaker, and the striped or marked side of each cable goes to the same color at both ends. For a steady tone that is easier to judge than a sweep, play 60–80 Hz on the tone generator.

Speaker placement for a clear stereo image

Set the two speakers and your head at the corners of a triangle with equal sides, with the speakers turned slightly toward you. Raise them so the tweeters, the small drivers that play high frequencies, sit at ear height. Then the Both chime sits in the middle, and Left and Right sit at the speakers.

Distance from the wall changes the bass. Close to a wall or in a corner, the bass gets louder and boomier. A little farther out, it gets tighter. Run the bass sweep after each move and keep the spot where it sounds most even. If you mix music on these speakers, mixing at home covers the rest of the setup.

Testing headphones and earbuds

• Wear them the right way round. L and R are printed inside the headband or on the stems. The Left chime should land in your left ear.
• Check the seal. Earbuds and in-ear monitors lose bass when they sit loose. If the bass sweep stays faint until the last seconds, try a larger ear tip and run it again.
• Reconnect a silent earbud. If one Bluetooth earbud stays quiet, put both back in the case for a few seconds so they pair to each other again.
• Close call apps first. A Bluetooth headset with its mic open switches to call mode and sounds thin. To check the mic side of the same headset, use the mic test.

Is your speaker blown? Signs and a multimeter check

A blown speaker has a torn cone or surround, or a burned voice coil, the coil of wire that moves the cone. The sweeps show the signs.

• Buzzing or rattling at the same frequency at every volume, including low ones.
• Distortion on the chime at a moderate volume.
• One driver silent. In a two-way speaker, nothing above a few kilohertz points to a dead tweeter, and a thin sound with no bass points to a dead woofer.
• No sound from one speaker after you have ruled out cables and settings.

Testing a passive speaker with a multimeter

1. Disconnect the speaker from the amplifier.
2. Set the multimeter to resistance (Ω) on its lowest range.
3. Touch the probes to the speaker’s two terminals.
4. Read the result. A working driver reads a little below its rated impedance, often around 6–7 Ω for an 8 Ω speaker. OL or no reading means a broken voice coil, and a reading near 0 Ω means a short.

A normal reading does not prove the cone is intact, so if the sweep still buzzes, take the grille off and look for tears. To check a speaker cable, set the meter to continuity and touch both ends of the same wire. Powered and Bluetooth speakers have the amplifier inside the box, so use the sweeps for those.