Sound test, can you hear it?

A sound test plays known sounds so you can tell whether your speakers or headphones work, and which part is wrong when they do not. This online sound test goes step by step: it plays a sound, asks "can you hear it?", and when you say no it gives a short list of things to try. It works with built-in laptop speakers, headphones, earbuds, Bluetooth speakers and a monitor's speakers. Everything is generated in your browser, with no download and no recording.

How to run the sound test

1. Turn the volume of your device down to about a third. Put your headphones on, or sit where you usually listen to your speakers.
2. On step one, press Play the soft tone. It starts from silence and rises over 8 seconds. Press Yes, I can hear it as soon as you hear it. If nothing comes, press No, I hear nothing.
3. Do the left and right steps. Three beeps play on one side only, and you say where they came from.
4. Do the both step, then the bass sweep. Read the warning above the sweep first, and press Now I hear it when you first hear the low hum. The page shows the pitch at that moment.
5. Finish with the volume ladder and the mono check. At the end you get a summary of every step and the fixes for any that failed.

You can press P to play and Esc to stop. The steps on the right show your progress, and you can go back to any step you have reached.

What each step tells you

Reading the volume ladder

The six beeps are 5 decibels apart, so the first is 25 dB below the last. If you heard 4 of the 6, you heard the last 4, and the quietest one you caught was 10 dB below the loudest: 2 missed steps times 5 dB. A few missed beeps is normal when your volume is low. If you heard none, even the loudest, the page treats that as a failed step and shows the fix list. The ladder is a check of your setup at the current volume, not a hearing test. For that, use the hearing test, which is also not a medical test.

The mono check, explained

Stereo sound keeps left and right separate. Mono mixes them into one by adding them together. The test plays a tone on both sides, then plays the same tone with the right side turned upside down. In stereo both parts are heard, although the second feels spread out and strange. In mono the two sides add up to zero, so the second part vanishes. That is a clear sign that Mono audio is on or that only one speaker is in use. With loudspeakers in a room, the second part may only sound quieter, because low pitches partly cancel at the listening spot. That is why the page has a separate answer for it.

What to try when there is no sound

• Check the tab and the device. A crossed-out speaker icon on the browser tab means it is muted. Check the device volume and any mute key.
• Check the output. On a Mac, open System Settings, then Sound, then Output, and pick your speakers or headphones. On Windows, open Settings, System, Sound, and choose the output device.
• Check Bluetooth. Headphones can stay paired to a phone in your pocket. Disconnect there, reconnect here.
• Check the plug. Push the cable in all the way, or try another port or pair of headphones to see whether the fault is in the device or in the computer.
• Press play again. Browsers only start sound after a click on the page, so the first press can be silent in rare cases.

Want more tests, such as a phase check or pink noise? Open the speaker test. To play one pitch for as long as you like, use the tone generator, and to check your microphone too, try the webcam and mic test.