speaker-test
Generate test tones for ALSA speakers
TLDR
Test speakers with pink noise
SYNOPSIS
speaker-test [OPTIONS]
DESCRIPTION
speaker-test generates test tones through ALSA sound devices to verify speaker configuration and channel mapping. It supports various test signals including pink noise, sine waves, and WAV file playback.
The tool cycles through each speaker channel, playing the test signal to help identify which physical speaker corresponds to which audio channel. Use aplay -L to list available PCM devices for the -D option.
PARAMETERS
-c, --channels num
Number of channels to test (default: 8)-D, --device name
PCM device name to use-f, --frequency freq
Sine wave frequency in Hz (default: 440)-t, --test type
Test signal: pink, sine, wav, or st2095-l, --nloops count
Number of test loops (0 = infinite)-s, --speaker channel
Test single channel only-w, --wavfile file
Custom WAV file for wav test-W, --wavdir directory
Directory containing WAV files-r, --rate rate
Sample rate in Hz-b, --buffer time
Buffer size in microseconds-p, --period time
Period size in microseconds-P, --nperiods periods
Number of periods (default: 4)-m, --chmap map
Channel position mapping override-X, --force-frequency
Allow frequencies outside 30-8000Hz range--help
Display usage information
CAVEATS
Requires ALSA and appropriate sound card drivers. Very high or low frequencies may not be audible or could damage speakers. Default device may not be the intended output; specify with -D. Some test signals require speaker test WAV files to be installed.
HISTORY
speaker-test is part of alsa-utils, the ALSA (Advanced Linux Sound Architecture) utility collection. ALSA became the standard Linux sound system in kernel 2.6 (2003), replacing OSS. The speaker-test tool helps users configure multi-channel audio setups and verify surround sound configurations.