Speaker Test

How to use it

1. Turn your device volume down, then choose the Channel and the Test tone.
2. Press Play tone and check that the sound comes from the side you chose. Press Stop sound to end it.
3. Press Play sweep 20 Hz to 20 kHz and note the frequency where the sound fades.
4. Choose In phase or Inverted and press Play polarity check, then compare what you hear in the centre.

Left, right and both channels

Stereo sound has two channels. The left channel goes to the speaker on the left, the right channel to the speaker on the right, and a sound in the centre goes to both. The test moves a tone to one side with a stereo panner. Check that each side plays the tone and that the sides are not swapped. A balance setting pushed to one side also makes the sound come from one side only, so check the balance in your system sound settings as well.

The frequency sweep

The sweep goes from 20 Hz to 20 kHz, the usual range of human hearing, in 10 seconds. The pitch rises in equal steps per octave, so the lowest octaves take as long as the highest ones. Small speakers cannot reproduce the bass, and hearing at the top of the range falls with age.

Test tones

440 Hz is the standard pitch of the A above middle C and makes a useful reference. Low tones test the bass driver and high tones test the tweeter. Keep the volume low: a loud high tone held for a long time can be tiring or harmful.

Polarity check

Polarity describes whether a speaker cone moves forward or backward for the same signal. When two speakers have the same polarity, they move together and the centre sound is full. When one is reversed, they push and pull against each other: the centre sound loses bass and seems wider. The check plays the same tone on both channels, first in phase and then with the right channel inverted, so you can hear the difference.

Frequently asked questions