🔊 Whine Finder

Track down a faint, high-pitched electrical whine (coil whine, transformers, chargers, power bricks, monitors, LED drivers…) using your phone's microphone.

  1. Stand in a quiet spot and tap Start. Allow microphone access.
  2. The app finds steady, narrow tones. If it picks the wrong one, tap the right frequency in the list or on the spectrum.
  3. Walk slowly around the room with the phone's bottom edge (where the mic is) pointed at suspects. The number goes up as you get closer.
  4. Save readings at each suspect to compare them.

All audio is processed on your phone. Nothing is recorded or uploaded.

Listening…
--dB
quietloudest: --

Steady tones detected

Analyzing… give it a few seconds.

Spectrum — tap a peak to lock it

A whine shows as a sharp spike and a steady vertical line in the waterfall.

Saved spots

Tips for finding it
  • Sweep slowly. High frequencies are very directional and reflect off walls, so move a little, pause a second, and watch the trend arrow.
  • Get close. Level rises sharply within a few centimetres of the source. Hold the mic right up to each power brick, charger, monitor, PC case, light, and outlet.
  • Unplug one thing at a time. If the tone disappears from the list when you unplug something, you've found it. Flipping breakers works for things inside walls (dimmers, transformers, smoke detectors).
  • Usual suspects: phone/laptop chargers, USB hubs, LED bulbs on dimmers, monitors and TVs (even in standby), PC power supplies and graphics cards, routers, speakers/amps, ultrasonic pest repellers, CRTs (~15.7 kHz), and smoke/CO detectors.
  • Mic limits: phones can usually measure up to about 20 kHz. If you can hear it but nothing shows up, try another phone, take off the case, and lower the “Ignore below” setting.
  • Keep the room quiet while you search; fans, HVAC and talking raise the background.