Manual: speaker-test

SPEAKER-TEST(1)				   General Commands Manual			     SPEAKER-TEST(1)

NAME
       speaker-test - command-line speaker test tone generator for ALSA

SYNOPSIS
       speaker-test [-options]

DESCRIPTION
       speaker-test generates a tone that can be used to test the speakers of a computer.

       speaker-test  by	 default  will test the default device. If you want to test another sound device you
       will have first to get a list of all of the sound cards in your system  and  the	 devices  associated
       with  those cards. Notice that there might be for example, one device for analog sound, one for digi‐
       tal sound and one for HDMI sound.  To get the list of available cards and devices you can  run  aplay
       -L.

       $ aplay -L
       null
	   Discard all samples (playback) or generate zero samples (capture)
       default:CARD=ICH5
	   Intel ICH5, Intel ICH5
	   Default Audio Device
       front:CARD=ICH5,DEV=0
	   Intel ICH5, Intel ICH5
	   Front speakers
       surround40:CARD=ICH5,DEV=0
	   Intel ICH5, Intel ICH5
	   4.0 Surround output to Front and Rear speakers
       (...)

       in  the above example, there are four devices listed: null, default, front and surround40. So, if you
       want to test the last device you can run speaker-test -Dsurround40:ICH5 -c 6. The -c option will	 in‐
       dicate that the six audio channels in the device have to be tested.

OPTIONS
       -c | --channels NUM
	      NUM channels in stream

       -D | --device NAME
	      PCM device name NAME

       -f | --frequency FREQ
	      sine wave of FREQ Hz

       --help Print usage help

       -b | --buffer TIME
	      Use  buffer size of TIME microseconds.  When 0 is given, use the maximal buffer size.  The de‐
	      fault value is 0.

       -p | --period TIME
	      Use period size of TIME microseconds.  When 0 is given, the periods  given  by  -P  option  is
	      used.  The default value is 0.

       -P | --nperiods PERIODS
	      Use number of periods.  The default value is 4.

       -r | --rate RATE
	      stream of RATE Hz

       -t | --test pink|st2095|sine|wav
	      -t pink means use pink noise (default).

	      Pink  noise  is perceptually uniform noise -- that is, it sounds like every frequency at once.
	      If you can hear any tone it may indicate resonances in your speaker system or room.

	      -t st2095 means use bandlimited pink noise at -18.5dB AES FS,  generated	according  to  SMPTE
	      ST-2095:1-2015.	In  addition  to speaker localization it may be used for system calibration,
	      for example 85dB for thater drivers, with an extra +10dB for subwoofers.	Per the spec, it  is
	      intended "to be used in calibrating the sound pressure level and electroacoustic response of a
	      cinema B-chain system."  Note that sampling rates less than 48KHz are outside the scope of the
	      spec, and an attempt will be made to construct a reduced rate filter.

	      -t sine means to use sine wave.

	      -t wav means to play WAV files, either pre-defined files or given via -w option.

	      You can pass the number from 1 to 3 as a backward compatibility.

       -l | --nloops COUNT

	      Specifies the number of loops.  Zero means to run infinitely.

	      When -s option below with a valid channel is given, speaker-test will perform always a single-
	      shot without looping.

       -s | --speaker CHANNEL
	      Do  a  single-shot speaker test for the given channel.  The channel number starts from 1.	 The
	      channel number corresponds to left, right,  rear-left,  rear-right,  center,  LFE,  side-left,
	      side-right, and so on.

	      For  example,  when 1 is passed, it tests the left channel only once rather than both channels
	      with looping.

       -w | --wavfile FILE
	      Use the given WAV file for the playback instead of pre-defined WAV files.

       -W | --wavdir DIRECTORY
	      Specify  the  directory  containing  WAV	files	for   playback.	   The	 default   path	  is
	      /usr/share/sounds/alsa.

       -m | --chmap MAP
	      Pass  the channel map to override.  If the playback in a specific channel order or channel po‐
	      sitions is required, pass the channel position strings to this option.

       -X | --force-frequency
	      Allow supplied FREQ to be outside the default range of 30-8000Hz. A minimum of  1Hz  is  still
	      enforced.

USAGE EXAMPLES
       Produce stereo sound from one stereo jack:
	 speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2

       Produce 4 speaker sound from two stereo jacks:
	 speaker-test -Dplug:surround40 -c4

       Produce 5.1 speaker sound from three stereo jacks:
	 speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6

       To send a nice low 75Hz tone to the Woofer and then exit without touching any other speakers:
	 speaker-test -Dplug:surround51 -c6 -s1 -f75

       To do a 2-speaker test using the spdif (coax or optical) output:
	 speaker-test -Dplug:spdif -c2

       Play in the order of front-right and front-left from the front PCM
	 speaker-test -Dplug:front -c2 -mFR,FL

SEE ALSO
       aplay(1)

AUTHOR
       The  speaker-test  program  was	written	 by  James Courtier-Dutton.  Pink noise support was added by
       Nathan Hurst.  Further extensions by Takashi Iwai.  SMPTE ST-2095:1 band-limited pink noise added  by
       Rick Sayre.

speaker-test				       April 2nd, 2011				     SPEAKER-TEST(1)