Full Sound Check

Six quick questions, one at a time: left, right, balance, polarity, bass and treble. Each step plays a short sound and asks what you heard. At the end you get a summary of what passed, what needs a look, and which tool to try next. You can add a quick microphone check at the end too.

Start quiet. Turn your volume down before the first step, then bring it up until the tone is comfortable. Every sound starts at a low level, but we can't see your volume setting.

Before you start

Sit where you normally listen, facing forward. If you have two speakers, sit in the middle between them. Sitting off to one side makes the nearer speaker sound louder and earlier, which sounds exactly like a real balance problem but has nothing to do with your equipment. With headphones, check the left side is on your left ear: many are marked L and R on the inside of the band.

Close anything else that's playing sound, and turn off any audio effects on your device, such as spatial audio, virtual surround, bass boost or loudness equalisation. They change the sound on its way to your speakers, so a step could pass or fail because of the effect rather than the hardware.

Reading your results

Every question is worded so that yes is the good answer, and the summary marks each step as passed or needing a look. "Needs a look" isn't a diagnosis. It tells you the most common cause and links to the full tool for that step, where you get more control than one question can give you: a tone you can move, a sweep you can stop, a side you can pick.

The microphone step is optional and comes last. It only asks for permission when you press Start listening, shows the level as a relative figure in dBFS rather than real loudness, and turns the microphone off as soon as you answer.

Your results aren't stored anywhere. They only exist while this page is open, and reloading it starts a fresh check.

Two results that usually aren't faults

If the polarity step sounds the same both times, your device may play both sides through a single speaker. Laptops, phones, soundbars and many Bluetooth speakers do this, and then two identical-sounding tones is the right result, not a wiring fault. And if you can't hear the bass step on laptop or phone speakers, that's normal too: small speakers can't move enough air to play 80 Hz, and nothing is broken.

What this check can't tell you

It can't measure anything in absolute terms. The speakers and microphones in laptops, phones and headsets aren't calibrated, so every result is what you heard, not a measurement. The treble step especially isn't a hearing test. If you can't hear the 10 kHz tone, your speakers may not be able to play it, or it may be higher than you can hear, and the hearing range test explains how to tell which. Neither this check nor that test can diagnose hearing loss. If you're worried about your hearing, consult a specialist.