Test your sound in seconds.
Play a test sound and instantly confirm your speakers, headphones, or earbuds work — left channel, right channel, and everything between. Runs entirely in your browser: nothing to install, nothing uploaded.
Press play — the waveform draws what you should be hearing.
Online sound test.
One button tells you if audio works; the channel buttons tell you which speaker is which.
Check these before you start
- Unmute the outputA muted OS mixer or a hardware mute key silences every test — check the speaker icon in your taskbar or menu bar first.
- Pick the right output deviceIf sound goes to the "wrong" place, your OS may be routing audio to a monitor, TV, or Bluetooth device you forgot about.
- Seat the plug or pair the deviceA half-inserted 3.5 mm jack drops one channel; a Bluetooth device that's paired but not connected plays nothing.
- Turn the volume to ~50%Start moderate — you can raise it once you hear the test sound. Loud surprises help nobody's ears.
How to test your sound
- 1Play the test sound. Hit the big play button (or press Space). You should hear a short, clear melody and see the waveform move — if the wave moves but you hear nothing, the problem is between your device and your ears, not the browser.
- 2Check each channel. Use Left speaker and Right speaker to confirm each side plays on its own — and on the correct side. If left plays from the right, your plugs or wires are swapped.
- 3Sweep the stereo field. The stereo sweep glides a tone from left to right. It should travel smoothly through the middle with no jump, dropout, or volume dip along the way.
- 4Go deeper if something's off. Dead channel? Run the left/right test. Weak low end? Try the bass test. No mic input on calls? Use the mic test.
How this online sound test works
Every sound on this page is synthesized live in your browser with the standard Web Audio API — no audio files are downloaded and nothing is recorded or uploaded. When you press play, your browser generates the waveform, hands it to your operating system, and the OS sends it to whatever output device is currently selected. That's exactly the same path Spotify, YouTube, or a Zoom call uses, which is what makes this a fair test: if the test sound plays, that whole chain works.
The channel buttons use a stereo panner to place sound fully in one channel at a time, so a dead driver, a broken wire, or a swapped cable shows up immediately. The live visualizer draws the exact signal being sent to your device — if the bars dance while your room stays silent, the browser is doing its job and the fault is in your hardware, cable, or OS output settings.
When to run a sound test
Before a meeting
Ten seconds before the call beats ten awkward "can you hear me?" moments during it. Test output here, then your mic.
New speakers or headphones
First thing after unboxing: confirm both channels play, on the correct sides, with no rattle or distortion.
Second-hand gear
Test a used laptop, speakers, or headphones before you pay — a dead channel takes seconds to catch.
After an OS update
Updates love to reset default output devices and audio drivers. A quick test confirms sound survived.
Mystery silence
No sound in one app? If the test plays here, your hardware is fine and the problem is that app's settings.
New audio setup
Rewired your desk, added a DAC, an interface, or a mixer? Verify the whole chain end-to-end in one click.
What a failed test means
Each symptom points at a different link in the audio chain. Find yours:
The waveform moves, but there's no sound
The browser is producing audio, so the fault is downstream: OS volume/mute, the selected output device, the cable, or the speaker itself.
→ Check the OS output device and volume mixer, then reseat cables or reconnect Bluetooth.
Nothing plays and the waveform is flat
The browser tab is blocked from playing audio, or the tab is muted.
→ Click the page once, check the tab's mute flag, and allow sound for this site in your browser's site settings.
Only one side plays
A half-seated plug, a damaged cable or driver, or the OS balance slider pushed to one side.
→ Reseat the plug, test with another cable or device, and confirm with the left/right test.
Left and right are swapped
Speaker wires or plugs crossed during setup — very common with bookshelf speakers and amps.
→ Swap the wires/plugs at the amp or interface. Software can't reliably fix a physical swap.
Sound is quiet or muffled
An EQ preset, "night mode", or spatial-audio processing altering the signal — or debris in a speaker grille or earbud mesh.
→ Disable audio enhancements in your OS/driver software, then clean the hardware.
Crackling or distortion
Clipping from stacked volume boosts, a failing driver, or a loose connection.
→ Lower app and OS volume to ~70%, test again; if it persists on all devices, suspect the driver.
Sound test glossary
- Channel
- An independent audio stream. Stereo has two (left + right); surround formats like 5.1 have six.
- Sample rate
- How many times per second audio is measured, in Hz. 44,100 Hz (44.1 kHz) is CD quality; 48 kHz is the video/streaming standard.
- Stereo image
- The illusion of sounds having positions between your speakers. A good image places the sweep smoothly across the space in front of you.
- Panning
- Placing a sound between the left and right channels by changing its relative volume in each.
- Driver
- The physical part of a speaker or headphone that moves air to make sound — and also the software that talks to your audio hardware. Both can fail.
- Clipping
- Distortion that happens when a signal is pushed past the maximum level the hardware can reproduce — sounds harsh and crunchy.
Frequently asked questions
Why is there no sound when I press play?
Work down the chain: is the tab muted (right-click the browser tab), is the OS volume up and unmuted, and is the correct output device selected in your system settings? Browsers also block audio until you interact with a page — pressing any button on this page counts, so a stuck "suspended" state clears the moment you click. If the visualizer moves but you hear nothing, everything in the browser is working and the fault is your OS routing, cable, or speaker.
Is this sound test really free and private?
Yes. Every tone is generated inside your browser with the Web Audio API — there's no audio file to download, no recording, no account, and nothing sent to a server. You can open this page, test, and leave; no data about your audio ever exists outside your device.
Which devices can I test with this?
Anything your computer or phone can play sound through: built-in laptop speakers, desktop speakers, wired and Bluetooth headphones, earbuds, USB audio interfaces, soundbars, and TVs over HDMI. The test exercises the exact output path your apps use, so whatever device your OS points at is what gets tested.
The sound only plays from one side. Is my speaker broken?
Not necessarily. First check the OS balance slider (it can drift after driver updates), reseat the 3.5 mm plug fully, and try a different cable or source. Run the left/right stereo test to confirm which channel is silent — if the same side stays dead across two cables and two sources, the driver or its wiring has failed.
Left and right are reversed. How do I fix that?
With wired speakers, the wires are crossed at the amplifier — swap them there. With headphones, you're probably wearing them backwards (check the L/R marks). Some Bluetooth earbuds also swap channels after re-pairing; putting both buds in the case and reconnecting usually restores the correct sides. Software "swap channels" settings exist but fixing the physical cause is the reliable cure.
Does this test work for Bluetooth headphones?
Yes — but know two quirks. Bluetooth adds a small delay (often 100–300 ms), so the visualizer may move slightly before you hear sound; that's the codec latency, not a fault. And if the earbuds are connected in "call" mode (hands-free profile), quality drops sharply — reconnect them or close apps like Teams/Discord that hold the mic open, and test again.
What's the difference between this and the speaker test on my OS?
The idea is the same, but this runs anywhere, needs no menu digging, adds a live visualizer that proves the signal is being generated, and pairs with deeper tools — a bass sweep, a 5.1/7.1 surround test, a precision tone generator, and a hearing screening — so you can chase any problem you find to its cause.
Can a sound test damage my speakers?
At sensible volumes, no — the test melody and tones here are ordinary audio signals. What can cause damage is playing any sustained tone at maximum volume, especially deep bass through small speakers. Start around half volume and raise it only as needed; the bass test page has specific warnings for subwoofer-range sweeps.