Sound Localization Test
A tone plays from a hidden stereo position. Listen carefully and click where you think the sound came from on the left-to-right bar. Best with headphones!
How to Play đ Sound Localization Test
Sound localization is your brain's ability to determine where a sound is coming from. In everyday life you do this using two main cues: interaural time difference (the tiny delay between a sound reaching your left versus right ear, just fractions of a millisecond) and interaural level difference (the slight volume difference caused by your head acting as a sound shadow). Together these let you pinpoint sounds in the horizontal plane â left, right, or dead ahead â with remarkable precision under ideal conditions. This test uses stereo panning via the Web Audio API to place a gentle chord tone anywhere along the left-to-right spectrum. The sound plays through your speakers or headphones with the pan position randomised each round. Your job is to listen carefully and then click the bar to mark where you perceived the sound coming from. Easy mode uses five fixed positions (far left, left, centre, right, far right). Medium adds four more positions in between, and Hard mode uses a continuous range of positions. Headphones are strongly recommended â they give each ear a completely isolated channel, which makes subtle near-centre positions much easier to distinguish. On speakers the channels bleed together and centre positions can be harder to place accurately. You can replay the sound as many times as you like before committing your answer.
- â 100% free to play
- â No download or installation
- â No account or sign-up needed
- â Mobile and touch friendly
- â Works on all modern browsers