Audio Tests — Microphone, Speaker & Headphone Checks
By Jayadeep · Last updated: August 2026 · How we test
Five browser tests that tell you whether your microphone is being heard and whether your speakers and headphones are actually playing what they should.
Audio faults are unusually hard to self-diagnose, because the two halves of the problem look identical from where you are sitting. If nobody can hear you on a call, the microphone might be muted, might be the wrong device, might be capturing at near-zero gain, or might be working perfectly while the other person's output is broken. You cannot tell which from inside the call. The tests on this page exist to cut that ambiguity in half: they separate capture from playback so you know which side to fix before you start changing settings.
Start with the direction that is failing. If people cannot hear you, that is a capture problem and the microphone test is the place to begin — it shows a live level meter and a waveform, then lets you record a few seconds and play it straight back. Hearing your own recording is the single fastest way to distinguish "my mic is dead" from "my mic is fine and the app is muted". If you cannot hear them, it is a playback problem, and the speaker, headphone or headset tests will confirm whether sound is reaching your ears at all.
The second thing these tests separate is channels. A surprising share of "broken" headphones are not broken — they are playing correctly in one ear while the other side is dead, and because most everyday audio is near-mono, you can go weeks without noticing. The left/right audio test plays each side independently and tells you which one you are supposed to be hearing, so a dead channel becomes obvious in about ten seconds. The same test catches reversed wiring, where left and right are swapped by a faulty cable or a mis-set surround profile.
Every test here uses the Web Audio API and the browser's getUserMedia interface. Microphone audio is processed as a live stream inside the page and is never written to disk, never sent to a server, and never retained after you close the tab. When you record and play back, that clip lives in your browser's memory only. You can confirm this yourself by opening your browser's DevTools network panel while the test runs — there is nothing to see, because nothing is sent.
Every audio test
Which test do I need?
Work out which direction is failing first — capture or playback — then follow the matching row. Getting that split right saves you from changing output settings when the fault is on the input side.
| What you are seeing | Start here | Why this one |
|---|
| Nobody can hear me on calls | Microphone Test | Start with the microphone test. Watch the level meter while you speak at normal volume — no movement means the wrong device is selected or permission was denied. |
| I cannot hear anything at all | Speaker Test | Run the speaker test. It plays a test tone through the device your browser currently considers default, which is often not the device you think. |
| Only one ear works | Left/Right Audio Test | The left/right test plays each channel alone and announces which side should be playing. If you hear both announcements from the same ear, the fault is the headphones or the cable. |
| My headset works for music but not for calls | Headset Test | This is usually a Bluetooth profile switch, not a fault. The headset test checks the microphone and both earpieces together, which is exactly the combination calls use. |
| I want to check headphones before buying or selling | Headphone Test | The headphone test sweeps frequencies and checks both earpieces, which surfaces a blown driver or a dying channel that casual listening would miss. |
Troubleshooting guides
Longer walkthroughs for the audio faults these tests expose, including the app-specific cases where the hardware is fine and the software is not.
Frequently Asked Questions
Do these audio tests work without installing anything?
Yes. All five run in the browser using the Web Audio API. There is nothing to download, no plugin, no account, and no extension. Any current version of Chrome, Edge, Firefox or Safari will run them.
Is my microphone audio recorded or uploaded?
No. Audio is processed as a live stream inside the page. Nothing is written to disk, nothing is transmitted, and nothing survives closing the tab. When you use the record-and-playback feature, that clip exists only in your browser's memory.
Why does the browser ask permission before the microphone test runs?
Browsers require explicit consent before any page can access a microphone, and that permission is per-site. The test cannot see your microphone until you allow it, and revoking permission in your browser's site settings cuts access off immediately.
My microphone works here but not in Zoom or Discord. Why?
That result is actually useful — it proves the hardware and the driver are fine, so the fault is inside the app. Almost always it is a per-app input device selection or a per-app permission toggle rather than anything system-wide.
Can these tests tell me if my headphones are genuinely broken?
They can tell you whether each channel produces sound and whether the two sides are balanced, which covers the common failure modes — a dead driver, a broken cable conductor, or a bad solder joint at the jack. They cannot measure absolute frequency response, because that needs a calibrated measurement microphone.
Does a Bluetooth headset behave differently from a wired one?
Yes, and it matters. When a Bluetooth headset activates its microphone it usually switches from the high-bandwidth A2DP profile to the much narrower HFP profile, and audio quality drops audibly in both directions. If your headset sounds fine for music but muffled on calls, that switch is the reason, not a fault.
Other test categories
Screen tests · Controller tests · Input tests · Performance tests · Camera tests
Microphone audio in these tests is processed as a live stream in the page and never written to disk or transmitted. Open your browser's network panel while a test runs and you will see nothing leave. How we validate these tests.