Skip to content

Device test

Play each side and check it comes from the right place.

Nothing uploaded

Headphone test: left, right and the full range

Play the left tone and confirm it arrives on your left. Swapped channels are more common than people expect and nearly impossible to notice in music, but they ruin anything mixed with direction in it.

FreeNothing uploaded

The short answer

To test headphones, play the left tone and the right tone separately and confirm each arrives on the correct side. Sound from one ear only usually means the plug is not fully seated or a conductor in the cable has failed. Reversed sides point at an extension lead or a channel balance setting, not at the headphones.

Getting it right

Four things worth knowing

  • Seat the plug fully

    A 3.5mm jack pushed in only to the first click gives you one channel or a thin, phasey sound. Push until it seats — a phone case with a narrow port is the usual reason it does not.

  • Flex the cable near the plug while a tone plays

    Crackling or dropouts as you move it means a broken conductor rather than a driver fault. It is the most common headphone failure, and the plug end is where it happens.

  • Turn spatial audio off before judging anything

    Head-tracked and spatial modes move the stereo image deliberately, which makes a left-right test meaningless. Switch to plain stereo, test, then turn it back on.

  • Start the sweep quiet

    Headphones sit against your ears, so a sweep at a level that is comfortable on speakers can genuinely damage hearing. Set the volume low and raise it only if you need to.

Nothing leaves your device

This test runs entirely in your browser. There is no upload, no recording and no server that could receive anything — close the tab and it is gone.

  • No sign-up and no account
  • Nothing recorded or stored
  • Works with an ad blocker on
  • Free, and staying free
FAQ

Questions people ask

Anything we've missed?

Tell us

One side is silent.

Try another pair in the same socket, and the same pair in another socket. Those two tests separate the headphones, the cable and the port in under a minute.

The sides are swapped. Is that possible?

Yes. A reversed extension lead, a badly wired adapter or a balance slider dragged off centre all do it. It is almost never the headphones themselves.

Why do cheap headphones go quiet at the low end of the sweep?

Small drivers cannot move enough air to produce deep bass. Very little output below about 60Hz is normal on in-ear headphones. A rattle or a dropout anywhere in the range is not.

Is testing at full volume safe?

No. Prolonged exposure above roughly 85 dB damages hearing and headphones reach well past that. Test at the level you would actually listen at.

Test it for something specific

Other device tests

Someone on a video call at a desk, holding a mug
Sent anywhereNothing
Photo by Helena Lopes on Unsplash
Before it matters

Find the problem now, not mid-sentence

Every one of these runs in the browser and checks one thing properly. Nothing is uploaded, nothing is recorded, and none of them need an account.

Related reading

Guides worth reading