Left Right Headphone Test & Stereo Phase Check

Check left and right

Put on headphones, or sit between your speakers, and tap a test; tap again to pause. The picture shows where the sound sits between your ears and how loud each side is.

Why check left and right?

Earbuds are easy to swap by mistake, and some cables, adapters and Bluetooth settings flip or merge the channels. For music it barely matters; for games, films, 8D audio, binaural beats and stereo nature sounds it matters a lot.

The centre test should sound right in the middle of your head; if it leans to one side, one earpiece is louder or the balance setting is off. Out of phase sounds hollow and inside your head; if the normal test sounds like that, one side is wired backwards.

Good to know

Many phones have a mono audio setting under accessibility; with it on, left and right play the same and every test sounds centred.
Bluetooth headsets often drop to a mono, lower-quality mode while the microphone is in use during a call.
In headphones the centre is a phantom: the same sound in both ears is heard in the middle of your head, not in front of you.
L and R are usually printed inside the band or on the stems, and the left earbud often has a small bump to find it by touch.

Test	What you should hear	If not
Left	Only your left ear	Earbuds swapped, or channels flipped
Right	Only your right ear	Earbuds swapped, or channels flipped
Both	In the middle of your head	The balance setting, or a blocked earpiece
Left to right	A smooth glide across	A jump means mono, or a broken side
Out of phase	Hollow, inside your head	If the normal test sounds like this, a side is reversed

How do I test left and right headphones?

Play the left test and the right test: each should come only from that side. Then the centre test should sit in the middle of your head.

Why does sound only come out of one side?

Usually a loose plug, a damaged cable, a balance setting pushed to one side, or a mono setting. Try another device to see whether it is the headphones or the source.

What does out of phase mean?

One side moves in while the other moves out. The sound loses its centre and its bass, and feels as if it is inside your head.

Mixes

Pick what you need. One tap to start, change anything and save it as your own.

Focus timer

Work in waves.

The Pomodoro rhythm: focus with calm sound in your ears, then take a real break. A soft bell marks every change, so you never watch the clock. Every fourth break is a long one.

25:00Focus · 1 of 4

Silence during breaks

Sound while you work

Breathe

Slow your breathing down.

Follow the circle and the sound: it rises as you breathe in and falls as you breathe out. Choose a rhythm, or set your own, and pick what plays underneath.

Ready

Sound while you breathe

Noise generator

Any color of noise, from deep brown to bright violet — and everything in between.

Brown noise

Noise volume

Spectrum · 20 Hz – 20 kHz

Sound science

The colors of noise

Same randomness, different tilt. Each color shifts energy between low and high pitches — here is what that sounds like.

White

0 dB / octave

Equal energy at every frequency. Because we hear in octaves, it sounds bright and hissy — the classic "TV static".

Pink

−3 dB / octave

Equal energy in every octave, so it sounds even to the ear. Steady rain, rustling leaves. A favorite for focus.

Brown

−6 dB / octave

Deep and warm, like a distant waterfall or a plane cabin. Masks voices and traffic without any hiss.

Grey

Equal-loudness curve

Shaped around how our hearing works, so every pitch seems equally loud. Balanced and soft.

Blue

+3 dB / octave

The mirror of pink: more treble than bass. Airy, crisp, like a light spray.

Violet

+6 dB / octave

Mostly treble, like hissing water. Sometimes used to mask high-pitched ringing.

Calm

Gentle tones to settle into: singing bowls, a slow warm drone, wind chimes tuned so every note fits.

Frequencies

Famous tones on pages of their own: hear them side by side, with honest facts.

Sound phenomena

How sound bends, shifts, rings and fools the ear, and why space is silent: hear it for yourself.

Nature

Rooms & travel

Animals & countryside

A purring cat, whales and dolphins, a nightingale in the dark, cowbells on a summer pasture. Wonderful in stereo.

For babies

Womb sounds are what a baby heard for nine months: a deep rush of blood flow, and the heartbeat.

Hearing and speaker tests

Check your ears, headphones and speakers, each test on a page of its own with a live picture.

Ear Age · 60 seconds

Test your ears.

Our ears lose the highest pitches first, and it starts early. Find the highest tone you can still hear and see the typical age for it.

Headphones on, quiet room
Set a comfortable volume on the 1 kHz tone
Don't turn it up when a tone disappears — that's the point

20,000Hz

Can you still hear it?

Hearing age test →

More ear tests

Check your headphones, find the deepest bass your setup can play, or play any pitch you like.

Headphones check

Left & right

Each ear should get its own side. It matters for 8D, binaural beats and every stereo sound here.

Headphones on, then tap a side.

Bass test

How low can you go?

Deep tones from 200 Hz down to 20 Hz, the bottom of human hearing. Mostly it tests your speakers or headphones.

Tone generator

Any pitch, 20 Hz – 20 kHz

Hz

Tone volume

Start quiet: high tones and square waves get tiring fast.

Take it to bed

An app without the app store.

Add Ears & Waves to your home screen and it opens like any app — full screen, with its own icon. Everything it needs is saved on your device, so it keeps playing on a plane, in a tent or with Wi-Fi off.

Preparing offline mode…

Works offlineNo streaming. Sound is computed on your device, forever.
Screen offKeeps playing with the phone locked. The timer fades it out gently.
PrivateNo account, no ads, no cookies. Your mixes stay on your device.

Left & right test.