How to Test Phone Speakers in Five Minutes
A five-minute routine using stereo, tone and sweep tests to find out what is wrong with a speaker.
Key takeaways
- Test each speaker on its own first. Most faults affect one side only.
- A few fixed tones tell you more than music does, because nothing in the recording can hide a problem.
- Start every test at low volume and raise it slowly.
Try the tool. Not sure which speaker is the problem? Test left and right separately.
Open the stereo sound testWhy test with tones instead of music
Music is a poor test signal. It changes constantly, each recording is mixed differently and your memory of how a song should sound is unreliable. A plain tone has nowhere to hide. If a steady note buzzes, wavers or disappears, the speaker is doing that, not the recording.
You need three short tests. Together they take about five minutes.
Before you start
- Remove the case and switch off Bluetooth.
- Find a quiet room.
- Set the media volume to about half. You will raise it during the tests.
- Turn off any equaliser, spatial audio or bass boost.
Test 1: Left and right
Open the left and right sound test and hold the phone sideways, the way you would to watch a video. Play left, then right, then use the automatic mode that alternates between them.
What to listen for
- Both sides should play, in the right order.
- Loudness should be roughly equal. On most phones the earpiece side is a little thinner than the bottom speaker, which is normal.
- A side that is silent or much quieter is the one to investigate.
Test 2: Single tones
Open the tone generator. Start at a low volume and play each of these for a few seconds.
| Tone | What it checks | A problem sounds like | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 250 Hz | Low end of a phone speaker | Rattle or buzz from the case or driver | |
| 440 Hz | Basic operation | Wavering or crackle | |
| 1 kHz | The speech range | Harshness or a second faint note | |
| 4 kHz | Clarity and consonants | Noticeably quiet, which suggests a blocked mesh | |
| 8 kHz | Top end | Missing altogether, which also suggests blockage |
Do not expect much at 60 Hz. Phone speakers are physically too small to reproduce deep bass, and silence there is not a fault.
Test 3: A slow sweep
Still in the tone generator, drag the frequency slider slowly from the bottom to the top at a moderate volume. A healthy speaker gets steadily louder through the low hundreds, stays fairly even through the middle and fades at the very top.
Listen for a sudden buzz at one point in the sweep. That is a resonance, meaning something is loose: debris on the mesh, a loose screw or a damaged cone. Note roughly where it happens and try again with the phone held differently to rule out your hand or the table.
Reading the results
- One side quiet at every pitch: blocked or wet grille. Clean it or run the water eject tool.
- High tones weak, low tones fine: dirt on the mesh. See cleaning phone speakers without damage.
- Buzz at one pitch only: something loose. Remove the case and clean the grille, then test again.
- Crackle on every tone: a damaged driver that needs replacing.
- Everything quiet but clean: a setting or volume limit. Read why speaker volume is too low.
Testing more than two speakers
For a television, soundbar or home cinema connected to your device, the surround sound test plays each channel in turn. Bear in mind that many browsers mix everything down to stereo, so check your system’s audio output settings as well.
Keep it safe
Raise the volume gradually and keep test tones short. Sustained high-volume tones can damage small speakers and your hearing. Never run tone tests through earbuds at full volume.
Next steps
Once you know which speaker and which symptom, use the checklist for fixing a phone speaker to deal with the cause.