Test Tones for Speakers

Press Play for a quiet 1,000 Hz sine tone, then step from 125 Hz up to 16 kHz.

Test Tones for Speakers: 1,000 Hz sine tone

Start with your device volume low.

Sine wave · both channels

Hz

  • Period 1 ms
  • Wavelength 34.3 cm (13.5 in)
  • 21 cents above B5

Ready. It starts quiet and fades in over half a second.

 

A steady tone can harm ears and speakers before it sounds loud. Hear nothing? Do not turn it up to find the tone: small speakers cannot play very low tones, and many adults cannot hear very high ones.

Percent of this tool's loudest. Your device volume does the rest.

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Sound test tones by octave

Next step Bass under 125 Hz: the 40 Hz test toneHear a tone that seems to rise forever

How it works

These test tones for speakers are eight steady sine waves, one an octave, from 125 Hz to 16 kHz. The page is a tone generator for testing speakers by ear: the tone that drops out or buzzes names the driver.

Read the full guide

Sound quality test tones, bottom to top

Press Play: 1,000 Hz fades in at 10 percent volume. Set a comfortable level once, at half the slider or under, then press the rows from 125 Hz octave step, the woofer's low end upward. Each row says which driver usually plays it. Note any row that buzzes, thins out or goes missing.

One speaker at a time

Six rows play the left or the right speaker alone at 250 Hz, 1,000 Hz and 8,000 Hz. The two 8,000 Hz rows are the tweeter test sounds: in a speaker that has a tweeter, only the tweeter plays them.

  • For bass under 125 Hz, the 40 Hz test tone page has chips from 20 to 100 Hz.
  • From 1,000 Hz to 125 Hz or 8,000 Hz is over an octave, so the tone fades in again.

Questions and answers

How to test tweeters in speakers?

Press the two tweeter rows, left then right. A tweeter typically covers 2,000 to 20,000 Hz, so a side that plays its 250 Hz row and nothing at 8,000 Hz has a tweeter that is not working. This is a check by ear.

Can I save the tones as files?

Yes. Save WAV writes about 30 seconds of the tone on screen: one channel for both speakers, two channels for a one-speaker row. The file carries the volume slider's level, so set the loudness on the player.

Why are the tones an octave apart?

They are the standard octave band centers, each double the one before, with 1,000 Hz as the reference. Eight steps cover a woofer, a mid-range driver and a tweeter without a long list. Any frequency between them can be typed on the big number.

Is this a hearing test?

No. It is a test signal for loudspeakers, not a hearing test or a treatment. A tone you cannot hear, most of all at 16,000 Hz, may be the speaker or the ear, and the page cannot tell which.

All 14 tones

The octave ladder, 125 Hz to 16 kHz 8

  • 125 Hz octave step, the woofer's low end The lowest step here. A woofer covers the lowest octaves of a speaker, and the small limited-range drivers in computers and toys give little this low. A clean, steady hum is what to listen for.
  • 250 Hz octave step, woofer Still the woofer. A sine wave has no harmonics, so the tone should be smooth and plain. Any rattle or rasp riding on it is added by the speaker.
  • 500 Hz octave step, woofer or mid-woofer In a two-way speaker the woofer carries much of the midrange too, often as high as 800 to 1,000 Hz, so it is still the driver playing here.
  • 1,000 Hz, the reference tone The tone this page opens on and the reference frequency of the octave band series. About where a two-way speaker's woofer stops; a mid-range driver, where there is one, generally covers 1 to 6 kHz.
  • 2,000 Hz octave step, where tweeters begin The bottom of a tweeter's typical 2,000 to 20,000 Hz. A crossover splits the signal between drivers, and near the split two drivers share a tone, so listen for a rough edge here that the rows either side do not have.
Show all 14 tones (9 more)

The octave ladder, 125 Hz to 16 kHz, continued

  • 4,000 Hz octave step, mid-range driver or tweeter Tweeter in a two-way speaker, mid-range driver or tweeter in a three-way one. A speaker sends high tones out in a narrower beam than low ones, so this row changes more than the low rows as you move to one side.
  • 8,000 Hz octave step, the tweeter alone In a speaker with a tweeter, only the tweeter plays this. A speaker whose tweeter has stopped still plays the lower rows and goes quiet from about here up.
  • 16,000 Hz step, near the top of the range Close to the top of a tweeter's range; older cone tweeters seldom go above 15,000 Hz. The tool notes that many adults cannot hear this high, so silence here is not proof of a fault. Do not turn it up to find it.

Stereo test tones: one speaker at a time 6

  • Left speaker, woofer check at 250 Hz Only the left speaker gets a signal. A hum from the right as well means the source is mixing its two channels into one.
  • Right speaker, woofer check at 250 Hz The same hum from the right speaker alone. If this row comes from the left and the row above came from the right, the left and right leads are crossed somewhere between the source and the speakers.
  • Left speaker, midrange check at 1,000 Hz The reference tone on the left alone. Compare it with the next row at the same volume setting: a matched pair gives the same loudness from each side at the listening seat.
  • Right speaker, midrange check at 1,000 Hz The right-hand half of the comparison. A side that is weaker here and on the woofer rows too is more likely turned down or badly connected than missing a driver.
  • Left speaker, tweeter check at 8,000 Hz A thin whistle from the left speaker alone. A tweeter typically covers 2,000 to 20,000 Hz, so in a speaker that has one this tone is the tweeter's job.
  • Right speaker, tweeter check at 8,000 Hz The same whistle from the right tweeter. A side that played its 250 Hz row and gives nothing here has a tweeter, or a crossover feeding it, that is not working.

How this list was compiled: Presets written for this page. Each one is a steady sine tone at a set frequency, on both sides or on one, made in the visitor's browser by this page's own tone generator. The eight ladder frequencies are the nominal octave band centers from 125 Hz to 16 kHz, with 1,000 Hz as the reference frequency of the series, checked on 2026-10-02 at https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Octave_band. Which driver usually plays which band was checked the same day and is given as usual ranges, not as a rule: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Woofer (a woofer covers the lowest octaves; in a two-way speaker it also carries much of the midrange, often reaching 800 to 1,000 Hz); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Loudspeaker (a mid-range driver generally covers 1 to 6 kHz, between the woofer and the tweeter; limited-range drivers are found in computers and toys; a speaker's sound pattern is nearly even in all directions at low frequencies and narrows at high ones); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tweeter (a tweeter typically covers 2,000 to 20,000 Hz; cone tweeters rarely go above 15 kHz); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Audio_crossover (a crossover splits the signal into bands for the separate drivers); https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sine_wave (a sine wave is a single frequency with no harmonics). Wikipedia's text is under CC BY-SA 4.0; the facts were checked there and the wording is this site's own. How a saved file is made (one channel, or two when the sound is on one side; the volume written into the file) was read from this site's own tone generator code on 2026-10-02. No maker is named and nothing is measured. Licence: own work

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