Compare two speakers in the same spot and see which holds its bass
Processed in your browser. Nothing is uploaded. Updated on 24 Oct 2026.Comparison is where this measurement earns its keep: run the sweep once through the laptop, once through the desk speakers, and the two curves show which one actually reaches lower and which only sounds as though it does. Both measurements share the same microphone and the same room, so the difference between them is meaningful even though neither curve on its own is a specification for anything.
Allow the microphone, then place the first speaker and the microphone where they will stay.
Press Run the sweep and note the Within 3 dB range and where the bass falls away.
Swap in the second speaker in the same spot and press Run the sweep again.
Compare the two curves; the curve includes the microphone and room, so only change the speaker.
This tool plays a slow logarithmic sweep from 20 Hz to 20 kHz through your speakers, records it back through your microphone, and draws what survived the journey as a curve in third-octave bands, relative to 1 kHz.
What the measurement is genuinely good for is comparison. Run it twice in the same place with two different speakers and the difference between the curves is real, because the microphone and the room were the same both times. It is also good at finding the point where a device stops producing bass at all, at showing a broad treble roll-off, and at catching a rattle.
A driver a centimetre across cannot move enough air to make low frequencies, so a typical laptop is already falling away by 200 Hz and has essentially nothing below 150 Hz. The bass you hear in music on those speakers is being implied by its harmonics rather than played. Phones are usually worse. A steep fall at the top of the curve, above 8 kHz, is often the microphone rather than the speaker, because many laptop microphones are filtered there by their driver.
The rest of the article, and all 6 questions about Frequency Response Sweep, are on the Frequency Response Sweep page.
Both, plus the room, multiplied together. A browser has no way to separate them, because that needs a calibrated measurement microphone and either an anechoic chamber or gated measurement. Treat the curve as a comparison between two setups in the same place, never as a specification for a single component.
Small drivers cannot move enough air to produce low frequencies, so a typical laptop speaker is already falling away by 200 Hz and has almost nothing left below 150. Phones are usually worse. The bass you hear in music on those speakers comes from harmonics higher up rather than from the fundamental.
Room reflections cause it. A reflection arriving a few milliseconds after the direct sound cancels some frequencies and reinforces others, producing peaks and dips that move when you move the laptop. Smoothing reduces the comb; moving half a metre and measuring again shows how much of the shape belongs to the room.
Not by chart, because the sound never reaches the microphone. Use the sweep by ear instead: note where the bass turns into a faint rumble and where the treble vanishes, then compare those two points between one pair and another. Judging headphones that way is more useful than most published specifications.
Still stuck? Ask about Frequency Response Sweep and anybody who knows can answer. No account needed.
Same job, other tools: Frequency Generator – Generate a steady test frequency for speakers, headphones or instruments · High Frequency Hearing Check – Screen the top tones, 4 kHz and 8 kHz, ear by ear, then test higher with a tone generator · Sweep Tone Generator – Sweep smoothly between two frequencies over a time you choose · Mic Test – See your voice on a live waveform and hear it played straight back · Audiogram Test – Draw an audiogram-shaped chart from tones you say you could hear.
On the related tools: Play Audio Backwards – Hear a recording backwards, then forwards, for the reverse singing challenge.
In the collection Audio Test Tools.