How to test your headphones properly
A headphone test should tell you how a pair handles real music, not just whether it makes a sound. This tool plays full songs written for the job: sub-bass grooves, piano and vocals, bright cymbals and a stereo walk, so each part of the frequency range gets a fair hearing.
Everything runs in your browser. The music is generated live, so there is nothing to download and the same test works on any device.
Check bass, mids and treble separately
Each tab is built around one part of the spectrum. The bass tracks reach down to about 33 Hz, the mids tracks use piano, guitar and a sung vocal, and the treble tracks use bells, cymbals and violin. The live spectrum shows exactly which frequencies are playing, and the highlighted band shows where to focus.
Turn on Solo band to play only one range. If the bass solo is nearly silent, your headphones roll off early. If the treble solo sounds harsh, they have a peak in the highs.
- Bass should be tight and defined, not boomy or smeared.
- Vocals and pianos should sound natural, without a hollow or nasal tone.
- Cymbals should be crisp and detailed without hissing at you.
Use the sweep tracks to find where your hearing and your headphones stop reproducing the lowest and highest tones. Keep the volume low for the air sweep.
Left, right and centre channels
The Channel Walk puts the guitar hard left, the piano hard right and the drums and bass in the centre. The channel checker can also send the whole mix to one ear, sum it to the centre, or swap the sides.
Run the guided channel test to hear left, right, centre and both in turn, with a voice announcing each step. The meters show what each ear receives, and the phase meter in the Left / Right tab warns you if the channels cancel each other.
- If left and right are swapped, the cable or the app is reversing the channels.
- If the centre sounds hollow in the phase test, one driver may be wired out of phase.
- A balance that drifts to one side can point to a damaged driver or a dirty plug.
Shape the sound with the equalizer
The 10-band equalizer covers 31 Hz to 16 kHz in plus or minus 12 dB. Use the presets to hear the difference between a bass boost, a vocal curve and a V-shape, then use Bypass EQ to compare against the original sound.
Once you find a curve you like, copy the same settings into your music player or your system equalizer.
Protect your hearing
Always start with the volume low and raise it slowly. Loud bass is easy to underestimate, and long sessions at high volume can cause permanent damage. If a sound is uncomfortable, it is too loud.
Measure what you hear with the Spectrum Analyzer, push your speakers with the Bass Test, or check your own hearing range with the Hearing Test.