Headphone test

Check that both channels work, that they are the right way round, and how far up the frequency range your headphones and your ears still reach.

Turn your volume down before you start. Sine tones sound much louder than music at the same setting, and high frequencies are easy to underestimate while they damage hearing.

Channels

Frequency

440 Hz

Volume

15%

Nothing is playing.

Tones are generated in your browser with the Web Audio API. No audio file is downloaded, your microphone is never opened, and nothing is uploaded.

How to use this test

  1. Put your headphones on the right way round — almost all are marked L and R inside the band.
  2. Set the volume low, then press Left only. You should hear the tone in your left ear and nothing in the right.
  3. Repeat with Right only.
  4. Press Sweep left → right. The tone should travel smoothly across your head, passing cleanly through the middle without jumping or dropping out.
  5. Then work up the frequency presets from 60 Hz to 19 kHz and note where you stop hearing anything.

What each part tells you

The channel tests find the most common headphone fault: one dead side. They also catch swapped channels, which matters more than it sounds — with the sides reversed, anything mixed in stereo is placed backwards, and in games you turn the wrong way.

The sweep checks balance. A tone that appears to sit off-centre, or that gets quieter as it crosses the middle, points at either a balance setting in your operating system or one side producing less output than the other.

The frequency range tests both your equipment and your ears at once. Small earbuds struggle below 60 Hz, where you may feel more than hear the tone. At the top end, the limit is usually you rather than the headphones.

What people typically hear

Textbook human hearing spans 20 Hz to 20 kHz, but almost nobody past childhood reaches the top of that. The upper limit falls steadily with age, and it is entirely normal:

  • Under 20 — often 17 to 19 kHz, sometimes higher.
  • Around 30 — commonly 15 to 16 kHz.
  • Around 40 — commonly 13 to 15 kHz.
  • 50 and above — often 12 kHz or lower.

These are rough ranges, not a diagnosis. Loud environments accelerate the loss, and it does not reverse. Sudden loss in one ear, ringing that will not settle, or a marked difference between your ears is worth taking to a doctor rather than a web page.

If one side is silent

  1. Try the other end first. Same headphones, different device. This one step separates a headphone fault from a device fault.
  2. Check the balance setting. On Windows it hides in the volume mixer under the device properties; on macOS it is in Sound settings. A balance slider knocked to one side imitates a broken headphone exactly.
  3. Flex the cable near the plug. If the sound cuts in and out as you move it, the conductor inside has broken. That is the failure point on the overwhelming majority of wired headphones, and on detachable-cable models it is a cheap fix.
  4. Clean the socket. Pocket lint compacts into a headphone jack and stops the plug seating fully. A wooden toothpick, gently, with the device switched off.

Frequently asked questions

Sound only comes out of one side.

Run the left and right tests separately to confirm which side is silent, then try the same headphones on another device. If the fault follows the headphones it is the driver or, far more often, the cable near the plug — the point that bends every time you put them away. If the fault stays with the device, check its balance setting before anything else.

The channels are swapped.

Almost always the source rather than the headphones. Check any audio interface, adapter or software equaliser in the chain, and on some USB-C adapters the pinout is simply wrong. A genuine wiring error inside the headphones happens, but it is rare outside cheap or repaired units.

I cannot hear the highest frequencies. Is something broken?

Probably not. Human hearing loses its top end with age: most children hear beyond 17 kHz, at 30 the usual ceiling is around 15 to 16 kHz, and by 50 it is often nearer 12 kHz. Losing the very top of the range is normal. Small speakers and phone earpieces also roll off high frequencies well before your ears do.

Does this test my headphones or my hearing?

Both at once, which is its limitation. If a tone is inaudible you cannot tell from this test alone whether your headphones failed to produce it or your ears failed to detect it. Comparing a second pair of headphones separates the two. Nothing here is a medical hearing test — see an audiologist if you are concerned.

Why does it sound worse over Bluetooth?

If a page or app has the microphone open, Bluetooth headsets switch to the hands-free profile, which is narrow-band and noticeably poor. Quality returns when the microphone is released. This page never touches your microphone, so a bad result here is not that — but it is worth knowing when testing during a call.

The tone crackles at high volume.

A pure sine tone is far more demanding than music at the same volume setting, so distortion appears earlier. Turn the volume down and see whether it clears. If it crackles even at low volume, the driver is likely damaged.

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