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Fix My Speaker
Speaker test

Speaker Test

Check that left and right play from the right sides, then sweep from 20 Hz to 20 kHz to hear where your speaker starts and stops. Nothing to install.

Left and right channel test

Press a side to play three chimes through that channel only. You should hear them from that side and nowhere else.

Phones with stereo speakers usually use the earpiece as one channel and the bottom speaker as the other, and swap them when the phone is rotated. Hold it sideways for this test. A phone with a single speaker plays every chime from the same place, which is normal.

Frequency sweep, 20 Hz to 20 kHz

A 30-second tone that rises from the lowest note people can hear to the highest. Mark where you first hear it and where it disappears.

Lowest you heard
—
Highest you heard
—
50%

Start at a moderate level. The top of the sweep can be piercing, and a speaker pushed hard at the bottom will rattle rather than play.

How to use

How to test your speakers

About two minutes from start to finish, on a phone, tablet, laptop or desktop.

  1. Step 1: Set a comfortable volume

    Start around half volume. The top of the sweep can be shrill, and a speaker driven hard at the bottom rattles instead of playing a clean note.

  2. Step 2: Check left and right

    Hold the phone sideways, or sit centred in front of your laptop, and press Left, Right and Both. Each chime should come only from the side it names.

  3. Step 3: Run the sweep and mark it

    Press Start sweep. Tap "I can hear it" when the tone first appears and "It went quiet" when it fades out. Your lowest and highest frequencies are shown underneath.

Why choose it

Why use this speaker test

A stereo check and a full-range sweep in one page, made by your browser on the spot. No app, no sign-up.

  • A true one-sided stereo check

    Each chime is routed to a single output channel, not just panned, so a swapped, silent or weaker side is obvious within seconds. It is the quickest way to confirm a phone, laptop or pair of headphones is wired the right way round.

  • 20 Hz to 20 kHz in 30 seconds

    The sweep climbs evenly through every octave, so the bass end gets as much time as the treble instead of flashing past.

  • Your range, in numbers

    Two buttons capture the exact frequency where the tone appears and where it vanishes, so you can compare devices or check again after cleaning.

  • Speakers and headphones

    Works through phone and laptop speakers, Bluetooth speakers, and wired or wireless headphones — whatever your device is playing through.

  • Nothing installed or recorded

    Every chime and sweep is generated in your browser. The page never asks for the microphone, and nothing leaves your device.

How to read the channel test

Each button sends three chimes to one channel only. On a laptop, or a phone with stereo speakers held sideways, Left should come from the left and Right from the right. Both plays through each at once and should sound centred.

  • Sides swapped: rotate the phone the other way. Phones swap channels with orientation, so "left" depends on which way up you hold it.
  • Both sides sound identical: check that mono audio is off. On iPhone it is under Settings › Accessibility › Audio & Visual; on Android it is in the Accessibility settings, though the exact place varies by maker.
  • One side is quieter or muffled: check the balance slider in the same settings. If balance is centred, the grille on that side may be blocked by water or dust — the speaker cleaner and the cleaning guide cover both.
  • One side is silent: some phones only have one loudspeaker, with the earpiece reserved for calls. If yours has two and one never plays, it may need repair.

How to read the frequency sweep

The sweep rises evenly through every octave, so it spends as long between 20 and 200 Hz as it does between 2 and 20 kHz. Press I can hear it when the tone appears and It went quiet when it disappears.

  • The low end is about the speaker. A phone or laptop speaker is too small to move much air at low frequencies, so the tone often only appears in the low hundreds of hertz. That is physics, not a fault. Headphones and larger speakers go much lower.
  • The high end is usually about your ears. The highest pitch people can hear falls with age, and many adults stop hearing the sweep somewhere between 12 and 17 kHz on any speaker.
  • Rattling or buzzing in the low part of the sweep, at a volume where music sounds fine, often means water or debris sitting on the grille. Run the dust removal sweep or the water eject tone, then test again.
  • Crackling at every frequency and every volume points at a damaged speaker rather than a blocked one. That needs a repair service.

Using the test with headphones

Both tests work with wired or Bluetooth headphones too, which makes the channel test a quick way to check that a pair is on the right ears. Keep the volume low before you start: the sweep's highest notes are unpleasant at full level. Do not use the cleaning tones with headphones on.

Speaker still sounding muffled?

Turn the volume up, point the speaker at the floor, and run the water eject tone for a minute. Two or three rounds clears most splashes.

Open the speaker cleanerTest your speaker