Method 1 · Media testing
Check every speaker or earphone channel. Play a left right sound test, confirm stereo balance, try a 5.1 surround sound test and sweep from bass to treble. Start with the volume low.
Runs in your browser. Nothing is uploaded.
Each button plays a short tone from one side only.
Plays a tone from one speaker at a time. Needs a 5.1 output selected in your system sound settings.
Glides from 20 Hz up to 20 kHz over 20 seconds.
– Hz
Play a single steady tone at any pitch.
Keep the volume low at first. Loud low or high tones can hurt your ears and speakers.
How it works
FAQ
Check the balance slider in your system sound settings, make sure the plug is fully seated, and confirm mono audio is off. A tone that only plays on one side in this test points to hardware or settings.
Healthy young ears reach roughly 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Most laptop speakers cannot reproduce much below 150 Hz, which is normal.
At a moderate volume, yes. Keep the volume low during low-frequency tones and never run them loud for long.
Yes, when your operating system exposes a 5.1 or 7.1 output. Select that output in sound settings, press a surround button and the tone plays from that speaker only. On a stereo output the buttons cannot isolate speakers.
Press the Left button. The earcup that plays the tone is your left side. If it is the right one, the cable or an app setting has the channels swapped.
Guide
Press Left and a short tone should come from the left speaker or earcup only. Press Right to check the other side, then Both to confirm the centre. A left right sound test catches swapped headphone channels, a loose plug and a balance slider pushed to one side in system settings.
Stereo sound uses two channels, and most laptops, phones and headphones only have those two. Use the stereo sound test to confirm both channels play at the same loudness, then run the frequency sweep from 20 Hz to 20 kHz. Rattling or silence at certain pitches points to a damaged driver or a speaker that cannot reproduce that range.
The surround sound test plays a tone from one speaker at a time: front left, center, front right, surround left, subwoofer and surround right. It only works when your system output is set to 5.1 or 7.1 in the sound settings. If the page reports fewer than six channels, the browser is receiving stereo and the surround buttons cannot be routed to separate speakers.
Start with the volume low and raise it slowly. Test headphones and external speakers separately, and unplug anything you are not testing. If a tone is missing on one side only, swap the cable or try another device to decide whether the fault is in the speaker or the source. To check the other end of the chain, run the mic test.
Keep testing