Headphone Test — Left, Right and Frequency Check
Test your headphones in your browser. Confirm both earcups work, verify left and right are not swapped, and sweep the full frequency range to check for dropouts, rattles or a dead driver.
◀ Left channel
440 Hz tone — left only
Right channel ▶
440 Hz tone — right only
Single frequency tones
Start quiet. Pure tones sound louder and are harder on drivers than music at the same level.
The three checks that matter for headphones
Both drivers alive. Play the left tone, then the right. This is obvious with headphones on your head in a way it never quite is with speakers in a room, because there is no crosstalk between your ears. If one side is silent, you have found a real fault in seconds.
Correct orientation. Headphones are marked L and R for a reason, and getting them backwards ruins spatial audio in games and films while sounding almost normal with music. Put them on the way you always do, play the left-only tone, and confirm it arrives in your left ear.
Matched level. With the both-channels tone playing, the sound should sit dead centre inside your head. If it pulls to one side, either the balance setting is off or one driver has lost sensitivity — a common early symptom of a headphone that is starting to fail.
Reading the frequency sweep
Run the 20 Hz to 20 kHz sweep with the headphones on and pay attention to three moments. The point where you first feel or hear the bass tells you the practical low limit — good over-ear headphones reach genuinely low, in-ears vary enormously, and cheap earbuds often produce nothing meaningful below 80 Hz.
The middle of the sweep should be smooth and continuous. Any point where the tone suddenly drops out and comes back is a fault worth investigating, and any point where it turns buzzy suggests a damaged or dirty driver.
The point where the tone disappears at the top is more a test of your ears than of your headphones. Hearing loss at high frequencies begins in the twenties and progresses steadily; someone at 20 might hear to 18 kHz while someone at 50 may stop near 13 kHz. Both are normal. If one ear stops noticeably earlier than the other, that asymmetry is worth mentioning to a doctor.
Wired versus wireless
| Wired 3.5 mm | USB | Bluetooth | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Latency | None audible | Very low | 100–300 ms typical |
| Mic quality | Depends on the input | Good, consistent | Drops to mono, low bandwidth during calls |
| Common failure | Cable near the plug | Driver or port | Pairing and profile switching |
| Good for | Recording, gaming, monitoring | Desk use, headsets | Convenience, mobile |
The single most common headphone fault of all is a break in the cable just where it enters the plug or the earcup, caused by repeated bending. It shows up as one channel cutting in and out as you move. Because it is a mechanical failure rather than an electronic one, no software setting will fix it — but on headphones with a detachable cable, a replacement cable costs very little and solves it completely.
Testing a headset microphone
A headset has two halves and this page tests only one of them. If you are checking a gaming or call headset before an important session, run the microphone test as well — the mic boom is a separate component with its own failure modes, and headsets often work perfectly in one direction while being silent in the other.
Wearing headphones while testing your microphone is also the correct way to judge echo, because it removes the loop from your speakers back into the mic.
More device tests
Microphone Test
Check that your mic is heard, at the right level, with no distortion.
Webcam Test
See your camera live, read its resolution and frame rate, take a snapshot.
Speaker Test
Left/right channel check, test tones and a full 20 Hz–20 kHz sweep.
Keyboard Test
Find dead, stuck or ghosting keys on a live on-screen keyboard.
Mouse Test
Test every button, the scroll wheel and cursor tracking.
Click Speed Test
Measure your clicks per second over 5, 10, 30 or 60 seconds.
Double Click Test
Detect a failing mouse switch that registers one click as two.
Dead Pixel Test
Full-screen solid colours that reveal dead and stuck pixels.
Headphone test FAQ
How do I check if my headphones are wired the right way round?
Play the left-only tone with the headphones on your head as normal. Sound should appear in your left ear. If it appears in the right, the headphones or the cable are wired backwards, or your system's channel setting is reversed.
One earcup is quieter than the other — what causes that?
Most often a partly inserted 3.5 mm plug, dirt in the jack, or a damaged cable near the connector. Wiggle the plug gently while a tone plays; if the level changes, the connection is the problem, not the driver.
What frequency range should headphones cover?
Decent headphones reproduce roughly 20 Hz to 20 kHz, which is wider than most speakers because the driver sits right at your ear. You are more likely to run out of hearing than to run out of headphone.
Do Bluetooth headphones behave differently?
Yes. Bluetooth adds latency, and when the microphone is activated the connection drops to a low-quality mono profile that sounds noticeably worse. That is a limitation of Bluetooth itself and affects every wireless headset.
Can loud test tones damage my hearing?
Yes, if you push the volume. Sustained pure tones feel less loud than music but carry the same risk. Start at a low level and stop immediately if anything is uncomfortable.
Why do I hear a hiss when nothing is playing?
A constant hiss with no signal usually comes from the amplifier's noise floor, and it is more audible with sensitive in-ear monitors. On a laptop, a hiss that changes when you move the mouse points to electrical interference rather than the headphones.
Test your headset microphone
Record five seconds and hear exactly what your teammates or callers hear.
Open the microphone test