About SoundTestLab

SoundTestLab is a bench of browser-based audio testing instruments: a stereo sound test, speaker test, headphone test and mic test, each producing measured readings you can act on or paste into a support ticket. It exists because the sites answering these searches have barely changed since 2012 — a play button, a wall of ads, no actual measurement.

Who builds this

SoundTestLab is built and maintained by Peyton, a software engineer who has spent the past decade building consumer web products, most of that time on audio and video-heavy applications. This is an independent one-person project — no media group, no affiliate deals with headphone brands, no sponsored rankings.

That independence cuts both ways, so the site is deliberately built to not require trust in a byline. Every threshold used to grade a reading is published with its reasoning on how we test; every measurement names its unit and its blind spots; and the test code runs entirely in your browser where you can inspect it. If a number here can’t be defended, it gets removed rather than rounded up. The quality process is public and simple: publish the method, state the limits, fix what someone proves wrong.

The three rules

• Measure, don't vibe. Readings come with numbers, units and reference ranges — the method is public on how we test.
• Honest limits.When a browser can't measure something (absolute SPL, true surround through a stereo pipeline, Atmos), the tool says so instead of pretending.
• Local only.Audio is processed in your browser's memory and never uploaded. Shareable reports live inside their links — we keep no database of results.

How the site is funded

Today: it isn't. The plan is unobtrusive display advertising placed after results — never between you and the test, never as pop-ups, and never with microphone access (our permissions policypins mic access to this site only, so an ad frame can't request it). If that changes, this page will say so.

Contact

Found a bug, a wrong threshold, or a device that fools a test? Tell us — correction reports are the most useful mail we get. Include the reading, your hardware, and what you expected; confirmed corrections ship with a note in the methodology page.