Press Start recording, say 'Peter bought a big blue bucket of paint', then listen for pops on playback.
Press Start recording, then talk. You hear it back after.
Your browser will ask for the microphone. The recording stays in this tab.
How to read it
Four numbers, no verdict
Talk at your normal distance. Peaks between −18 and −6 dBFS leave headroom; 0 dBFS means the top of the wave was cut off. Then listen: your own ears are the judge of the recording.
Sample
Your microphone works, at a good level for speech.
Peak
−9.4 dBFS
Resting level
−52.3 dBFS
Sample rate
48,000 Hz
Length
6.2 s
quietgoodtoo loud
now loudestNot too loud
15.0 sof recording time left
Your recording plays back here as soon as it ends. Wear headphones or keep the volume low, or the microphone hears the speakers.
Microphone
Sample rate
Channels
Bit depth
Delay
Echo removal
Noise removal
Auto volume
Recording format
More options
What the readings mean
Your runs in this tab
No recording yet.
The recording stays in this tab and is dropped when you record again, hide the tab or leave. The code on this page uploads and stores nothing.
How this test works
The meter shows the largest sample of each moment in dBFS, where 0 is the most a recording can hold.
The recording is held in this tab’s memory for up to 15 seconds, played back through your speakers, and dropped when you record again, hide the tab or leave.
The microphone is let go as soon as the recording ends: it is never held open while you listen.
This mic quality test records a line you read aloud and plays it straight back, with its peak and resting level. As a microphone quality test it gives you eight sentences, seven built to expose one fault each: pops, hiss, boom, echo or missing highs.
Read the full guide
How to test mic quality
1. Press Start recording and allow the microphone.
2. Read one of the mic test sentences below from your usual call distance.
3. Press Stop recording. The take plays back by itself: listen for the fault that line is built to show.
4. Read the peak in the result, then try the next line.
Quiet, loud, near and far
Three takes say what no sentence can. Five seconds of saying nothing gives the noise floor, A count from one to ten, whisper to raised voice finds where the microphone clips, and One clap at arm's length lets you hear the room. Then read the plain line close, far and turned away.
Untick Call processing in More options before you judge the microphone itself: it switches off the browser's noise removal and auto volume.
Only checking that the microphone works at all? The mic test explains every reading and every error.
Questions and answers
How do I test my microphone sound quality?
For a microphone sound quality test, record one line twice with a single change between the takes: distance, angle, input volume or Call processing. Then compare by ear. The page gives each take's peak and resting level and no score.
What is a good microphone test sentence?
One built to provoke a fault. The paint line is packed with p and b, which pop. The fish line is packed with s and sh, which hiss. For comparing two microphones, use the plain hello line every time.
What are good loud sounds to test on a mic?
A count that climbs from a whisper to a raised voice, and one clap at arm's length. Both show whether the peak reaches 0 dBFS, where sound is cut off. Keep the playback volume low when you listen back.
Is my mic good?
The page never grades a microphone. A spoken peak between −18 and −6 dBFS with a resting level far below it is a clean signal. Whether the voice sounds right is for your ears, one line at a time.
Is my recording kept or sent anywhere?
The take is held in this tab's memory for playback only. This page's own code never uploads or stores it, and it is dropped when you record again, hide the tab or leave the page.
All 20 lines and checks
Mic test sentences to read aloud 8
The code is B, D, P, then five, nine, one, three.Letter names and digits, read out as you would a booking code. B, D and P sound alike and are easily confused over a poor line, which is why spelling alphabets say bravo, delta and papa. Play the take to someone and see whether they can write the code down.
Dad dug a deep ditch by the garden gate.D and g are plosives too, but the pops come mostly from the breathy ones, such as the p of paint. If the paint line popped and this one is clean, the pops are puffs of air and not a level set too high, so distance or a pop filter will cure them.
Fred said the first safe sign was false.Sets f against s. Telling the two apart needs the high frequencies that a telephone line leaves out. If f and s sound alike on playback, the top of the sound is missing: look at the sample rate in the result.
Hello, this is a test of my microphone: one, two, three.The plain line, for comparing. Say it into each microphone, or at each setting, in the same voice from the same place, then compare the takes and their peak figures. One fixed sentence is what makes two takes comparable.
Kate took ten quick taps at the ticket desk.Quick t and k, the light clicks of speech. In a clean take each one is a separate tick. If they blur into each other, the room is ringing: the sound of one syllable is still in the air when the next one starts. Move closer to the microphone and read it again.
Many men mow lawns along the main road.Every sound in it is voiced: a steady hum of m, n, l and r with hardly a hiss or a click. It shows the body of your voice. Close to a directional microphone it turns boomy. Record it again from farther back and keep the distance that sounds most like you.
Peter bought a big blue bucket of paint.Packed with p and b. Each one lets go a puff of fast air, and when the puff strikes the microphone you hear a pop or a thump under the word. A clean take has crisp p and b with no thud. If it pops, move back or put a pop filter between you and the microphone.
Six fresh fish sizzle in Sasha's shallow dish.Full of s, sh and z, the hissing sounds, whose energy sits anywhere from 2 to 10 kHz. In a clean take each hiss is sharp without being piercing. A harsh, spitting s is called sibilance. A pop filter does little for it, so change the angle or the distance and record the line again.
Quiet and loud 3
A count from one to ten, whisper to raised voiceSay one in a whisper and get louder with each number until ten is a raised voice. The number on which the lamp turns to Too loud: cut off is where this microphone clips at this input volume. If the lamp never turns, there is headroom left over.
Five seconds of saying nothingPress Start recording and stay silent. The resting level in the result is then the room, the computer's fan and the microphone's own hiss: the noise floor. The further it sits under your speaking peak, the cleaner your voice. Untick Call processing first, or noise removal hides the room.
One clap at arm's lengthA clap is a transient: a short burst that is at its loudest in the first instant. If its peak reads 0 dBFS, a laugh or a cough on a call will be cut off too. Then listen to what follows the clap, which is the room: a long ring means an echo behind every word.
Near and far 3
The plain line a hand's width from the microphoneClose in, a directional microphone lifts the bass of a voice, which is called the proximity effect, and the puffs of p and b land hardest. Listen for boom and pops. An omnidirectional microphone does not add this bass.
The plain line at arm's lengthIn open air, doubling the distance from a small source halves the sound pressure, a drop of about 6 dB. The peak figure falls and the room takes a larger share of the take. Compare this peak with the close one.
The plain line with your head turned awaySpeak past the microphone, as you do when you look at a second screen. A cardioid microphone, the commonest directional kind, is built to reject sound from other directions, so your level drops when you turn. If the take still sounds like you, the microphone forgives movement.
What the take tells you 6
A spoken line peaking from −18 to −6 dBFSThe band the meter marks good. A line that peaks here is loud enough to use and still leaves room above it for the count and the clap. −6 dBFS is half of full scale.
A spoken line peaking under −40 dBFS−40 dBFS is one hundredth of full scale. Raise the input volume in the system's sound settings, or halve your distance, and read the line again. A weak take can be turned up afterwards, but the noise floor is turned up with it.
Auto volume reads onThe browser is turning the microphone up when you are quiet and down when you are loud to hold a steady level. The whisper to raised voice count comes back at nearly one loudness and says little about clipping. Untick Call processing in More options, then count again.
The lamp turned to Too loud: cut offThree samples in a row sat at full scale, 0 dBFS, the largest value a recording can hold. The tops of the wave were cut flat, which adds harsh high harmonics, and what was in the cut peaks is lost for good. Lower the input volume in the system's sound settings and count again.
Noise removal reads onThe browser filtered background noise and equipment hum out of the take before this page received it, so your five silent seconds sound cleaner than the room is. To judge the microphone itself, untick Call processing in More options and record the silence again.
Sample rate reads 16,000 HzThe take holds nothing above 8,000 Hz, half the rate. Speech stays clear, but the hiss in the fish line and the f and s line loses its top. It is the rate of wideband calling, and a wireless headset can work at it while its microphone is in use.