Headphone Test — Drivers & Imaging
Test headphones online with channel isolation tones, driver matching, bass check and localization trials. Find dead drivers fast. Free, runs in your browser.
Protect your hearing. Start at a low volume. Never raise the volume to make a tone audible. Levels are shown in dBFS, relative to full scale — not SPL.
How it works
An 880 Hz tone is hard-panned with a StereoPannerNode for channel isolation, and spectrally even pink noise from an AudioWorklet is panned ear to ear for driver matching. The ITD demo splits one 500 Hz tone into two paths with a DelayNode of 0 to 0.7 ms on the lagging side. Burn-in plays centred pink noise on a fixed countdown that stops itself. Nothing is uploaded or recorded, and no sound plays until you ask for it.
A headphone test checks four things about a pair of headphones: that each ear produces sound, that the two drivers match, that stereo timing cues place correctly, and that the drivers keep working over time. Play the hard-panned isolation tones to confirm left and right, run the alternating pink noise to compare drivers, sweep the ITD delay to hear the image move, and optionally run a time-boxed burn-in with a visible countdown. Everything runs live in your browser, and nothing is uploaded or recorded.
Left / right headphone channel test
Choose Left, then Right, and confirm the 880 Hz tone comes from the expected ear. Because the tone is hard-panned with a stereo panner, a correct setup gives sound in one ear and silence in the other. If the tone labeled Left arrives in your right ear, a cable, an adapter, or an operating-system setting has the channels reversed.
Headphone driver matching test
Two drivers in one pair should sound the same. Pink noise is the reference matching signal because its energy is even across every octave. With Alternate L/R on, the noise swaps ears every 1.2 seconds: if one side is louder, duller, or buzzes, the difference repeats on every swap and is easy to pin down.
ITD localization demo
Your brain locates low-frequency sounds mostly by arrival-time differences of less than a millisecond. The demo feeds the same 500 Hz tone to both ears and delays one side by 0 to 0.7 milliseconds with a DelayNode. Pick which ear leads, then drag the delay: the image starts centred at 0 ms and shifts toward the leading ear as the gap grows.
Time-boxed headphone burn-in
Burn-in has no proven benefit for headphone sound quality, and this page states that plainly next to the control. If you still want a longer soak to confirm the drivers behave over time, pick 1, 5, 15, or 30 minutes and press Start. A countdown shows the remaining time, Stop ends the run early, and playback stops by itself when the timer reaches zero.
Aliases covered on this page: headphone test, left right headphone test, headphone channel test, headphone driver matching, and headphone burn in test.
Frequently asked questions
How do I test the left and right channels of my headphones?
Play the isolation tone on Left, then on Right. An 880 Hz tone is hard-panned to one ear only, so you should hear it in the named ear and in silence on the other side. If the sides are swapped, your cable, adapter, or operating-system balance setting is reversed.
How do I compare my left and right headphone drivers?
Play the pink-noise driver-matching signal with Alternate L/R on. The noise swaps ears every 1.2 seconds, which makes level or tone differences between the two drivers easy to hear. Pink noise carries equal energy per octave, so a matched pair should sound identical on each side.
What is the ITD localization demo?
ITD is the interaural time difference — the tiny arrival-time gap between your ears that your brain uses to place sounds left or right. The demo plays the same 500 Hz tone in both ears with a 0 to 0.7 millisecond delay on one side. At 0 ms the image sits dead centre; as the delay grows it pulls toward the leading ear.
Does headphone burn-in improve sound quality?
No proven benefit has been shown in controlled listening tests. This page offers a strictly time-boxed burn-in option (1 to 30 minutes with a visible countdown and a stop control) only so you can verify the drivers keep working over a longer session. It will not improve your headphones, and you should never leave it running unattended at high volume.
Why does the driver-matching test use pink noise?
Pink noise spreads equal energy across every octave, so it excites the full range of each driver at once and sounds even rather than harsh. Any mismatch in level, bass, or treble between the left and right drivers shows up immediately when the noise alternates ears.
Is this safe for my hearing?
Start at a low volume and never raise the volume to make a signal audible. Every signal starts only from a button you press, a persistent Stop and Mute are always available, and levels are reported in dBFS, relative to full scale, never in SPL. In-ear headphones sit close to the eardrum, so keep sessions short and levels modest.
How do I run a left and right headphone test?
Play the left-only tone and confirm it sits entirely in the left cup, repeat on the right, then play the centered signal and check it images in the middle of your head. If sides swap, your cable or OS balance is reversed; if one side is dull, compare with speakers to isolate the headphone fault.