Headphone Test

The headphone test runs step by step, and after each step you answer what you heard. At the end you get not a set of impressions but a diagnosis: whether the channels are swapped, whether one side is quieter, how low the bass plays, and where the upper limit is.

Why the questions matter

Half of all faults cannot reveal themselves through sound alone. Swapped channels sound perfect, just from the wrong side, and the only way to catch this is to ask where you heard the tone. That is why every step ends with a question.

What the test checks

• whether there is any sound at all, and whether it is too quiet;
• the left and right sides one at a time, which is where swapped channels get caught;
• balance: the same signal sent to both sides, so any difference is heard at once;
• phase: inverted phase is clearly audible in headphones, the sound loses its center;
• the low limit: the frequency at which the bass becomes audible;
• the high limit: where the highest frequencies end;
• rattle in the bass: stray sounds from debris in the grille or a damaged diaphragm.

What this test does not do

A headphone frequency response cannot be measured in a browser. That takes a measurement microphone placed in the ear. We are not measuring the headphones but what you hear.

The upper limit is really three things at once: the headphones, your hearing, and the sound card. Hearing loses the top end with age: by thirty most people keep 16–17 kHz, by forty 14–15, by fifty 12–13. If all your headphones show the same limit, the headphones are not the problem.

Above 20 kilohertz there is physically no signal. The browser outputs sound at 44.1 or 48 kilohertz, and half of that rate is the ceiling. Anyone promising a test up to 24 kilohertz is promising something that does not exist.