What does this speaker test check?
The test plays a 440Hz reference tone that alternates across the stereo field, left, right, and center, so each speaker takes a turn carrying the sound. A healthy speaker reproduces the tone cleanly at consistent volume; problems announce themselves as dullness, buzz, crackle, or one side dropping out.
It is deliberately a listening test, not a scoring test. Your ears comparing before and after a cleaning session is more reliable than a microphone-based score, because mic readings vary wildly with room noise, cases, and where you hold the phone.
Why does this test not need microphone access?
Because it never records anything. The tool generates tones locally in your browser with the Web Audio API and plays them; that is the entire data flow. A test that asked for microphone permission to score your speaker would add privacy cost for a number that room echo can swing by half.
That design also means the test works in any modern browser, on any phone, in silent environments or loud ones, with nothing sent to a server.
How to read what you hear
Listen for four things: loudness, crispness, evenness between speakers, and unwanted noise. Each maps to a specific problem and a specific next step on this site.
- Quiet on both speakers: check volume settings, then run the dust cleaner sweep.
- Dull or underwater sound: likely moisture, run the water eject mode with the grille down.
- Crackle or buzz on the tone: debris on the mesh or a damaged driver, clean first, then suspect hardware.
- One side silent or much quieter: that grille is blocked or that driver is failing.
- Clean tones but bad music: the speaker is fine, look at the app or equalizer.
Using the test before and after a fix
The test is most powerful as a bookend. Run it before a water eject or dust cleaning session and fix the sound of it in your memory, then run it again after. The comparison tells you honestly whether the session helped, needs repeating, or is not going to solve the problem.
For a deeper check at specific frequencies, the tone generator lets you play any pitch from 20Hz to 20kHz, which is useful for finding rattles that only appear at certain notes.