SPEAKER\-TEST

Section: User Commands (1)
Updated: 20 September 2004
Index Return to Main Contents
 

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.

 

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 default 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 ERIODS
Use number of periods. The default value is 4.

-r | --rate RATE
stream of RATE Hz

-t | --test pink|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 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
Use the given WAV file for the playback instead of pre-defined WAV files.

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

 

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

 

AUTHOR

The speaker-test program was written by James Courtier-Dutton. Pink noise support was added by Nathan Hurst. Further extensions by Takashi Iwai.