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Burrows Tools

Speaker Test

Speakers fail quietly, and no chatbot can play a sound through yours to check. This page can. It generates test tones in your browser — a left channel, a right channel, both together, a stereo sequence that names each side as it plays, and a sweep from 20 Hz to 20 kHz that walks the whole audible range so a dead tweeter, a rattling cabinet or a blown driver announces itself. Use it to prove a new pair of headphones is wired correctly, to find out which speaker died, to check that the balance control is centred, or simply to confirm sound is reaching the right device before a meeting starts. Every tone is level-capped and fades in and out, so nothing here can click or blast your ears. Playback starts only when you press a button, which is also what browsers require before a page may make any sound at all.

Press a button to play a tone. Sound starts only when you press — nothing plays on load.

Output is hard-capped well below full scale, and every tone fades in and out, so nothing here can click or blast. Changes apply to the next tone. Your system volume still applies on top.

On Bluetooth headphones expect a delay of roughly 100–300 ms between the press and the sound. That is the codec, not a fault, and it is why Bluetooth is poor for monitoring your own voice while recording.

How to use the speaker test

  1. Turn your system volume down to a comfortable level first, then press “Left speaker”. The sound should come only from your left.
  2. Press “Right speaker” and confirm it comes only from your right. If the sides are swapped, the cable or the balance setting is reversed.
  3. Press “Stereo check” to hear left, right, and both in sequence, each one named on screen as it plays.
  4. Run the frequency sweep to hear the whole range from deep bass to high treble — buzzes, rattles, and silent bands show up here.
  5. Use the volume slider and the tone presets to explore a particular frequency, and press “Stop” to end playback at any time.

Frequently asked questions

How do I test my speakers?
Press one of the channel buttons above and listen. Left plays only through the left speaker, right only through the right, and the stereo check plays them in turn while naming each side, so you can tell instantly whether both work and whether they are the right way round. The frequency sweep is the second test worth running: it plays every audible frequency in order, which is how you catch a driver that has gone or a cabinet that buzzes at one note.
Only one side plays. What does that mean?
Either the source, the cable, or the speaker. Check the balance control in your system sound settings first — it is the most common cause and the easiest to knock out of place. Then try a different cable or port, since a partly inserted 3.5 mm plug plays one channel. If the same side is silent on another device, the speaker or the driver itself has failed.
Why can I not choose which speaker plays the sound?
Choosing an output device from a web page uses setSinkId, which only Chromium browsers (Chrome, Edge, Brave, Opera) have shipped. In Firefox and Safari the picker is disabled and the tones play through whatever output your operating system has selected — change it there instead. Device names also stay hidden until a site has been granted microphone permission, which is a privacy rule rather than a fault.
Nothing plays at all. What now?
Check the system volume and that the tab is not muted — browsers let you mute a single tab, and it stays muted. Confirm the right output device is selected in your system sound settings, especially if headphones or a monitor are plugged in. Browsers also refuse to make sound before you interact with the page, so press a button rather than waiting: this page never plays anything on load.
Is a test tone safe for my ears and my speakers?
The output level here is capped well below full scale and every tone fades in and out, so there are no clicks and no sudden blasts — but your system volume is applied on top of ours, so turn it down before you start, especially with headphones on. Sustained loud tones are hard on tweeters as well as ears; short bursts at a moderate level tell you everything you need.

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