Why fit makes bass
Same earbuds, two people: one hears thumping bass, the other hears thin and tinny. Usually it isn't the earbuds. It's the seal. Try it below on your phone, with your earbuds in.
Start with your volume low. Every tone here is gentle, but your device volume is in charge.
Sound is air being pushed
A speaker pushes air back and forth. How many times a second is the frequency: low numbers are bass you feel, high numbers are hiss and sparkle. Slide it and watch the wave.
Bass waves are long: a 50 Hz wave is almost 7 metres from peak to peak. A tiny earbud driver can't fill a room with that. It makes bass by pressurising the small sealed space in your ear canal.
A leak lets the bass escape
When the tip seals, the air in your ear canal has nowhere to go, so a tiny push becomes real pressure on your eardrum. Open a gap and the low notes leak out first, while high notes barely notice. Hear it:
A filter simulates the leak. The green line shows how loud each frequency reaches your eardrum.
That's also why noise cancelling needs a seal. If outside noise sneaks around the tip, the earbud can't cancel what it can't control.
Test your own fit
Earbuds in. Tap each tone. If the low ones are faint or missing but 1000 Hz is clear, you've got a leak.
Tap the lowest one first.
If the bass was weak
- Go up a tip size. Most people keep the medium that came installed. Many need large, sometimes in just one ear.
- Twist, don't push. Insert, then rotate the bud slightly so the tip angles down the canal.
- Pull your ear up and back while inserting. It straightens the canal.
- Run the app's fit test. Apple, Sony, Bose and Samsung all have one.
- Try foam tips. They expand to fill odd-shaped ears.
Shopping for a pair? See our Top 5 earbuds →