Speaker Distortion Analyzer
Hunt rattles, buzzes and driver distortion by ear. Play a slow logarithmic sweep, park a sustained tone on any frequency, or run an increasing-amplitude stress ramp — then mark the frequency where you hear a problem. An optional microphone mode draws the live spectrum and a rough harmonic-energy indicator.
⚠ Safe-volume warning. Loud, very-low and rising-level tones can damage drivers and your hearing. Start at a very low level, keep it low, and stop the instant anything sounds harsh, rattly or clipped — especially in the stress mode, which deliberately ramps the level up. This is an uncalibrated listening aid: it helps you find and locate audible noises, but it cannot measure calibrated THD or absolute distortion. The optional mic view is indicative only — your speaker and microphone each add their own distortion, and the browser may apply AGC/limiting. For a real distortion measurement use a measurement microphone with software like REW or an audio analyzer.
Stress mode ramps the level at the frequency set by the Sustained-tone slider. Switch to Sustained tone to choose it. Begin at the lowest level and watch/listen for distortion.
Marked frequencies
Indicative only — the speaker and mic add their own distortion and the browser may limit/AGC the signal. Not a calibrated THD figure.
How It Works
Most audible speaker faults are mechanical: a loose grille or cabinet panel, a port that chuffs, an object on a nearby shelf that resonates, or — inside the driver — a rubbing voice coil, a torn surround, or a cone being pushed past its limits. These buzzes and rattles only appear at the particular frequency that excites them, so the reliable way to find them is to sweep a clean tone across the whole range and listen. This tool plays that tone with the Web Audio API (an oscillator routed through a gain control to your speakers or headphones), so the signal itself is mathematically pure — any rattle, buzz or harsh edge you hear is coming from the speaker, the cabinet, the room, or something loose nearby, not from the test signal.
There are three ways to drive it. The log sweep glides slowly from 20 Hz to 20 kHz over a duration you choose; when you hear a noise you press Mark and the current frequency is logged so you can return to it. The sustained tone lets you park on one frequency (or on a marked one) and listen closely, nudging the slider a little either side to confirm exactly where the rattle peaks. The stress ramp holds one frequency while slowly increasing the level, which makes a marginal rattle or the onset of driver distortion easier to provoke — but because rising level is exactly what damages drivers and ears, it starts very low, is capped a few dB below full scale (about -5 dBFS) — still potentially very loud — and should be stopped the moment anything sounds wrong.
The optional microphone mode captures the sound in the room and draws its spectrum, marking the fundamental (f) and its harmonics (2f, 3f…). When energy piles up at those harmonics relative to the fundamental, it suggests distortion, and the tool shows a rough percentage as a guide. Be honest with yourself about what this can mean: a laptop or phone speaker is already a distorting source, the built-in microphone adds its own non-linearity and frequency colouration, and browsers often apply automatic gain control or limiting that you cannot fully disable. So the harmonic indicator is a relative, uncalibrated hint — great for spotting a speaker that grossly distorts, useless as a real Total Harmonic Distortion (THD) figure. For a number you can trust, use a calibrated measurement microphone with software such as REW, or a dedicated audio analyzer, on a known-clean playback chain.