Headphone Test

Check left and right, polarity, range and stereo image.

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Play one side at a time and confirm the tone arrives where you expect it.

Put your headphones on, turn the volume down before you start, and work through the checks below. Only one check plays at a time, so starting the next one stops the one before it.

Wearing them the right way round? The cup marked L belongs on your left ear; swapped cups make every later check misleading.

Polarity

Both cups get the same tone. The second version flips the polarity of the right one.

In phase should sit as one solid point in the middle of your head.

Frequency range

Two short sweeps show how far your headphones reach at each end of the spectrum.

Most headphones stay faint below 30 Hz and only get solid near 50 Hz. A rattle or a buzz means the driver is straining, not reaching deeper.

Stereo image

One tone travels on its own from left to center to right and back again.

The tone should move in one smooth line, with no hole in the middle and no jump as it crosses from side to side.

Audio starts on your first tap on Play, as required by your browser.

A headphone test walks a new or suspect pair through the four things that actually go wrong. This online headphone check, sometimes called a left right earphone test or a stereo headphone test, covers sides, wiring polarity, how far the drivers reach at each end, and whether the stereo image holds together.

Testing speakers instead of headphones? Speaker Test

How to use it

Put the headphones on the right way round, with the cup marked L on your left ear, and turn the volume down before the first tone. Swapped cups make every check after the first one point the wrong way.
Start with Left and right. Play left, then right, then both, and confirm each tone arrives where the label says. Only one check plays at a time, so pressing the next button stops the one before it.
Run the polarity pair. Both cups get the same 440 Hz tone, and the second version flips the right driver. In phase should lock into one point in the middle of your head; out of phase should feel wide and hollow.
Play the two range sweeps. The low sweep runs 20 to 200 Hz, the high sweep 8 to 20 kHz, each over about eight seconds, with a live readout of the frequency that is sounding.
Finish with the stereo image sweep. One tone travels left, center, right and back over eight seconds, and the balance readout tells you where it should be at any moment.

What you can use it for

Checking a new pair before the return window closes. Five minutes here catches a dead driver, a reversed one and a channel imbalance that a music track would hide.

Testing a used or repaired pair. A rewired cable or a replaced driver is exactly where reversed polarity comes from, and the polarity check is the only quick way to hear it.

Diagnosing a crackling or cutting side. The single side tones let you wiggle the cable and the plug while a steady tone plays, so an intermittent contact announces itself.

Comparing two pairs honestly. Run the same low and high sweeps on both, on the same device at the same volume, and note where each one thins out. That is more useful than a specification sheet.

Setting up for gaming or mixing. The image sweep shows whether the middle is solid and whether panning is even, which is what positional audio and a centered vocal both depend on.

What you should hear in each check

Check	What plays	What you should hear
Left and right	A 440 Hz tone on one cup at a time, then on both	Each tone only in the named cup, at the same loudness on both sides. Silence, a crackle or a quieter side is a fault, not a preference.
Polarity	The same tone on both cups, with the right side flipped in the second version	In phase: one solid point in the middle of your head. Out of phase: wide, hollow and hard to place. If the two sound identical, one driver is wired backwards.
Low sweep	20 Hz up to 200 Hz over about eight seconds	Faint or nothing at the very bottom, getting solid somewhere between 30 and 50 Hz, then even. A rattle or a buzz means the driver is straining, not reaching deeper.
High sweep	8 kHz up to 20 kHz over about eight seconds	A tone that gets thinner and then disappears. Where it goes depends on your ears as much as on the headphones, so an early stop is not automatically a fault.
Stereo image	One tone travelling left, center, right and back over eight seconds	One smooth line with no hole in the middle and no jump at the sides. A tone that snaps from side to side points at a balance setting or a mono downmix.

Accuracy and limits

This is a functional check, not a measurement. It finds dead sides, reversed polarity, obvious imbalance and the rough reach of the drivers. It cannot produce a frequency response curve, a distortion figure or a soundstage rating, all of which need a measurement rig.

The high sweep tests two things at once. When it fades out you have found either the limit of the headphones or the limit of your own hearing, and the page cannot tell which. Most adults stop somewhere between 14 and 17 kHz, and that is normal.

Wireless headphones change the picture. A Bluetooth codec, an active noise cancelling mode and any in-app equalizer all sit between this page and the drivers, so run the checks wired if you can, and with every effect switched off if you cannot.

Frequently asked questions

How do I test if my headphones are working?

Play the left tone, then the right tone, and confirm each arrives in the cup it names at the same loudness. Then run the polarity pair: if in phase and out of phase sound the same, one driver is wired backwards even though both make sound.

How do I know if my left and right are swapped?

Press Play left and notice which ear hears it. If the tone arrives on the right, either the cups are on the wrong ears or the channels are crossed somewhere in the cable, the adapter or the system settings.

What does out of phase mean on headphones?

One driver pushes while the other pulls. The sound loses its center and seems to wrap around the outside of your head, and bass gets noticeably thinner. Deliberately, it is a test signal; permanently, it means a reversed connection somewhere.

My headphones stop at 15 kHz. Is that bad?

Almost certainly not. Hearing in the top octave falls with age for everyone, so most adults lose the sweep somewhere between 14 and 17 kHz while the headphones are still playing. If you want a closer look at your own range, run the hearing test.

Can I test headphones without an app?

Yes. Every check on this page is generated by your browser with the Web Audio API, so there is nothing to install, nothing to download and no audio file to stream. It works the same on a phone, a tablet and a computer.

Should the volume be high for the test?

No. Set it low enough that a tone is comfortable and leave it there for every check, so the sides stay comparable. The high sweep in particular carries real energy while sounding quiet, so raising the volume to chase it is a bad trade.