Crossover Frequency Tester
Hunt by ear for where a speaker’s drivers hand off to one another. Play a slow logarithmic sweep, or set a steady tone with a log-mapped slider and inch it through the suspect region — listen for a dip, a lobe, a buzz, or the sound seeming to jump between drivers — then mark the frequency. Use it to get oriented before you measure.
ℹ This is an uncalibrated, by-ear listening aid. It only plays tones through your speakers so you can judge them — it does not measure driver response, and it cannot read a crossover’s actual corner frequency or filter slope. Room reflections, speaker placement, and your own hearing all colour what you hear, so any frequency you mark is approximate. For real filter design use the Crossover Calculator; for a measured driver response use a measurement microphone with software such as REW. The “typical” crossover ranges shown are widely-published guidance, not a spec for your speaker. Protect your hearing and your speakers: start quiet, and avoid sustained high levels — especially low bass and high treble.
The sweep glides smoothly on a log scale and loops until you stop it. Listen for the moment the apparent sound source changes — that is roughly where one driver hands off to the next.
Ready.
Typical crossover regions (guidance only)
Marked frequencies
How It Works
A multi-way loudspeaker splits the audio band between specialised drivers — a woofer for the lows, perhaps a midrange, and a tweeter for the highs — using a crossover network of filters. The crossover frequency is the point where one driver rolls off and the next takes over. Around that handoff, the two drivers radiate the same frequencies from physically different points on the baffle, so their outputs add and cancel depending on angle: you may hear a small dip, a lobe where the level shifts as you move your head, a change in the apparent height or position of the sound, or — if something is loose, mistuned, or being pushed past its limits — a buzz or rattle.
This tool gives you two ways to find those handoff regions. In Manual mode it plays a steady sine tone whose frequency you set with a log-mapped slider (one slider position covers a roughly constant musical interval, so the low end is not cramped). Inch the slider through a suspect region, use the finer-step buttons for precision, and when you hear the character change, press Mark this frequency to save the candidate. In Auto sweep mode it plays a slow, smooth exponential (log) sweep over a range and duration you choose, looping so you can listen repeatedly; a live readout shows the instantaneous frequency so you can note where the change happens. You can route the signal to both channels, left only, or right only to test one speaker at a time (browser audio is two-channel stereo, so left/right is as specific as it can get — it cannot address discrete 5.1/7.1 channels).
Two honest cautions. First, everything here is uncalibrated and by ear: the tones are produced by your browser and played through your own speakers in your own room, so what you hear is the driver plus the room’s reflections and modes, the speaker’s placement, and your hearing. A frequency you mark is an educated guess, not a measurement of the crossover’s corner. Second, this tool reads neither the actual filter slope nor the driver’s response. To design a crossover from driver and slope figures, use the Crossover Calculator; to measure a real frequency response, use a calibrated measurement microphone with software like REW. Treat the “typical” ranges above as widely-published starting points, not a specification for your particular speaker.