Why can I not hear the highest tones?

Most likely age, which is normal. Hearing above 16 kHz declines steadily from your twenties onward and most people over forty top out around 15 kHz. It is also possible the tone is simply playing too quietly — this is a rough check, not an audiogram.

One side is silent. Are my headphones broken?

Test on a second device first. If the same side is silent there too, it is the headphones or the cable. If both sides work elsewhere, check your balance slider and whether mono audio is switched on in accessibility settings — those two account for a surprising share of supposedly broken headphones.

Headphone Test

Test your headphones and speakers. Check frequencies, balance, and stereo.

Volume: 70%

Tests

Individual frequency test

All calculations performed locally in your browser. No data sent to server.

Results are for informational purposes. Verify results with other sources.

Checking headphones: channels, balance and what you can still hear

Two things go wrong with headphones and neither is obvious from listening to music. One is a channel problem — a dead side, or left and right swapped. The other is that your own hearing has a ceiling, and it is lower than the specification on the box.

How it works

Plays a tone in one channel at a time, so a silent or swapped side is immediately audible.
Sweeps through frequencies from low to high, letting you find where you stop hearing anything.
Runs entirely in your browser using the Web Audio API — no download and no recording.

nominal human hearing range: 20 Hz to 20,000 Hz

typical upper limit by age (presbycusis)
  age 20   ~17,000–18,000 Hz
  age 40   ~15,000 Hz
  age 60   ~12,000 Hz

almost all music content sits below 16,000 Hz

Worked example

Working out whether a headphone fault is the hardware or the settings.

play left only — if you hear it on the right, the channels are swapped
play right only — silence here with a working left side means a dead driver or a bad cable
swap to another device — the same fault on both points at the headphones
check the operating system balance slider, which can sit off-centre without anyone noticing
check whether 'mono audio' is enabled in accessibility settings

A dead channel that follows the headphones is hardware. One that disappears on another device is a balance slider or a mono-audio setting — and both are single toggles that people spend money replacing headphones over.

Reading the result

Losing the top of the range is normal and not a fault. Most adults over forty cannot hear above 15 kHz, and it has almost no effect on music because there is very little content up there. Age-related high-frequency loss is gradual and permanent.
A frequency sweep is not a hearing test. Output level varies wildly between headphones and browsers, so an inaudible tone may simply be quiet. Real audiometry uses calibrated equipment in a controlled room; if you are concerned about your hearing, see an audiologist.
Turn the volume down before a sweep, especially at low frequencies. Bass tones feel quieter than they are, and it is easy to set a level that becomes painful when the sweep reaches the midrange.
Cheap adapters and worn 3.5 mm sockets cause most intermittent channel faults. Before blaming the headphones, twist the plug slightly while a single-channel tone plays — crackling or dropout points at the connection.

Common questions

Why can I not hear the highest tones?: Most likely age, which is normal. Hearing above 16 kHz declines steadily from your twenties onward and most people over forty top out around 15 kHz. It is also possible the tone is simply playing too quietly — this is a rough check, not an audiogram.
One side is silent. Are my headphones broken?: Test on a second device first. If the same side is silent there too, it is the headphones or the cable. If both sides work elsewhere, check your balance slider and whether mono audio is switched on in accessibility settings — those two account for a surprising share of supposedly broken headphones.