Headphone test

The test plays sound through your headphones and checks whether the left and right channels stay separate. It also checks polarity and plays a bass and treble range sweep at safe volume. Follow the prompts and listen for where each sound comes from.

A channel check can catch swapped earphones. If a sound meant for the left channel comes from the right, or the reverse, the channels may be reversed. The mono check plays a signal in one channel only. With a mono setting, that signal would come through both channels instead.

The left and right result tells you whether each channel sends sound to the expected side. A swapped result means the sides do not match the prompt. A mono result means the one-channel signal is also coming through both sides, which can happen when mono playback is on.

The polarity result checks the direction of the sound signal. The bass and treble sweep plays sounds across low and high pitches, so you can listen for whether those parts of the range come through your headphones.

A result can also show that a check did not complete or that sound was not detected. In that case, the page may not have been able to confirm the check. Try the test again and pay attention to whether sound plays on both sides as prompted.

If you hear no sound, the channels seem swapped, or one side behaves differently from the prompt, check that your headphones are connected and that sound is routed to them. Review any device setting that could send audio to one side or combine channels. These are common things to check, but the result alone does not identify the cause.

For no sound, the page links to a fix guide. Open that guide for help with the problem. After making a change, run the headphone test again to see whether the readings or sound have changed.

The bass and treble sweep runs at safe volume. Keep your device volume comfortable while you listen, and do not turn it up just to make a quiet part easier to hear. The test checks how sound comes through the headphones; it does not assess hearing.

Use the test to check playback and channel behavior, not to decide whether your hearing is healthy. If you cannot tell whether a sound came from the expected side, repeat the prompt while wearing the headphones as usual.