Bass Extension Test
Play a descending sweep from 200 Hz down to 20 Hz (or step through discrete tones) and mark the moment the bass stops being audible or felt. That point is a rough estimate of how low your speakers, headphones, or subwoofer usefully reach — compared below with typical ranges for different gear.
⚠ This is a subjective listening aid, not a measurement. Where you stop hearing bass depends heavily on how loud you play it — your ears are far less sensitive at low frequencies (the equal-loudness effect), so a quiet 30 Hz tone can be inaudible from a speaker that reproduces it perfectly well. “Inaudible” is not the same as “not produced.” Room gain, headphone seal, where you sit, and the device all shift the result, and this is not a −3 dB roll-off measurement. For a real low-frequency limit, use a measurement microphone with software like REW. Safe-volume warning: deep bass moves a lot of air — start quiet, and protect your hearing and your speakers (large cone excursion at high level can damage woofers and especially small drivers and earbuds).
Press “Play test” to begin. Start at a low volume and raise it only until 100–120 Hz is comfortably loud, then leave it — do not crank the volume chasing the lowest notes.
These are broad, commonly-cited ballparks. Manufacturer specs vary widely, and a vendor’s “frequency response” number is only meaningful with a tolerance (e.g. ±3 dB) and a measurement method behind it.
How It Works
The tool generates a single pure sine tone in your browser with the Web Audio API and sends it straight to your device’s audio output — that produced tone is the intended sound; nothing is recorded and your microphone is never used. In sweep mode the tone’s frequency glides smoothly from 200 Hz down to 20 Hz over the time you set, so you hear the bass descend and gradually fade as you reach the limit of what your gear (and your ears, at that level) can reproduce. In steps mode it holds each tone — 200, 160, 125, 100, 80, 63, 50, 40, 31.5, 25 and 20 Hz — for about two seconds so you can judge each one cleanly and even feel it physically.
As the tone plays, the big readout shows the current frequency. When the bass becomes inaudible or you can no longer feel it, press “mark limit”. The tool freezes the frequency at that instant and reports it as your approximate low-frequency limit, then places it on a scale of typical ranges so you can see roughly where your earbuds, laptop, bookshelf speakers, floorstanders, or subwoofer sit. To keep the comparison honest the tone starts quiet and the volume is capped well below full scale — you should set a comfortable mid-bass level around 100–120 Hz and leave it there, because raising the volume to chase the lowest notes will push your “limit” lower and tell you more about loudness than about the gear.
Why this can’t be a true measurement: human hearing is dramatically less sensitive in the deep bass (the well-known equal-loudness contours, formalised in ISO 226), so the same 30 Hz tone can be obviously audible when loud and completely silent when quiet — even though the speaker reproduces it identically both times. On top of that, room gain can boost bass near walls and corners, a headphone’s seal against your head changes its bass dramatically, and your seating position interacts with room modes. A real low-frequency limit (the −3 dB or −6 dB point) requires a calibrated measurement microphone and software such as Room EQ Wizard (REW); treat this tool as a quick, fun, relative listening check rather than a spec sheet.