My Tinnitus Loudness Experiment!

[glynis]

My tinnitus is so loud in both ears and never goes and its a bit freaky as its the same sound of my gas oven on full.
Well tonight I did a experiment as a rough guide to see what the level would be on a free app noise omiter just for curiosity as never tried doing it before .
The reading was 65db....
what do you guys think of that reading as its so loud.
Its only an experiment with out trying cook my mobile phone hahaha....lots of love glynis

 

[Quentino]

Well as someone who want to habituate fully i will personally not try tomeasure my T, but it's low compared to some members here.

But in facts i don't think it always means something, i mean as it's not a real sounds, i think there are T that are easily masked but sounds loud in silence and some not maskable but that don't seems so loud in silence, without other sounds to compare.

Mine is quite low, but when i think about it i think it's because it's not high pitched, i have quite a low/middle frequency T.

 

[I who love music]

I think if you keep listening to it and measuring it it's going to get worse.
I measured mine for 40 years then I tried something else and I stomped it ...
https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/back-to-silence.7172/

 

[glynis]

I definitely agree with you both and had tinnitus in both ears since 2004 and first time I've tried match the sound and great to read your responses
I wear duel hearing aids .......lots of love glynis x

 

[noisebox]

Glynis, I know a phsychologist who has t and is quite deaf and he is doing research into T. He told us at our last meeting that nobodies T goes above 15db. I wonder who told him that?

 

[erik]

Interesting Glynis. Mine is super loud sometimes and is always determined by my activity level. The more active I am or have been, almost always makes it is louder.

There are a few threads that talk about tinnitus pitch and loudness matching, what it is and how you do it: https://www.tinnitustalk.com/threads/tinnitus-pitch-and-loudness-matching.242/

 

[glynis]

Hi Eric,
Thank you for the information .
I just think my naughty monkeys are having a rave everyday and due to Menieres now need hearing aids.
I was just curious and a little freaky my ears sound like my gas oven on full.
I always look for the good in life and take no notice of what my ears do as I have come to terms with my ears and I just can't be botherd by them no more .
My ears are apart of me but I'm in charge of what makes me happy.......lots of love glynis

 

[Telis]

I can't mask mine, I could listen to white noise at dangerous levels and my T will eventually start peaking through. The shower helps a lot but I can still hear my T if I think about it. It's horrific, I wish I could cover it up at times, it would give me some control.

 

[Patch]

Hello Glynis,
I am new on here having just got T in both ears about 10 days ago. Certainly changes things, and not for the better. lol
I tried measuring my T also, it sounds really loud to me and very high frequency. Best I can come up with was around 8650 hz and matched that as best I could then played it on the computer with a decibel meter and come up with about 55 dba which from what I understand is the volume of normal conversation. I know this isn't very accurate, but gives me a little piece of mind that the sound probably isn't as loud as I think it is. I know I have trouble masking it unless I run the shower or have the sink running. Just thought I would let you know your not the only one that was curious about volume etc. Also, I have read quite a few postings on here and want to thank you for your kindness and inspiration to all that you have replied to.

 

[Alue]

@glynis

Are you talking masking volume or matching volume?

Glynis, I know a phsychologist who has t and is quite deaf and he is doing research into T. He told us at our last meeting that nobodies T goes above 15db. I wonder who told him that?

I had mine measured multiple times by an audiologist in a sound proof booth. They determine your sensory level then play a tone slowly creeping it up 2db at a time and ask you to match the volume with your tinnitus. Then they repeat it multiple times for consistency. I was consistently around 30dbsl and it was repeated for several months and it was consistently around that level.

 

[Kar4]

I had the same testing like Alue a few times.
I think problem is in used method. T cannot be exactly measured as it is not perception. They used frequency corresponding to my hearing loss, but different colouring. Result was about 50db but still able to hear it. Maybe because my T is reactive? To completely mask it, result would be something like 130 db i guess.

 

[Sam Bridge]

I had this done.

7db sensory level at 4khz.

 

[Candy]

@Sam Bridge where did u get it matched in the UK?

 

[Sam Bridge]

@Candy at an audiologist shop on a local highstreet.


https://www.regainhearing.co.uk/

 

[Allen Y.]

One audiologist told me most people's Tinnitus measures between 1 db - 20 db. She explains to me about sensorial measurements - and by that measure, mine is 3 db on left ear and 1 db on right.

I think sensorial db is B.S. By my own reckoning thought, on that day, which was a bad day, mine was more like 70 - 90 dB at 12-13kHz.

The idea of sensorial loudness is good: by measuring the loudness when you start perceiving it, and then measuring the loudness when you think the sound matches your T, and "subtracting" the two measurements, you should get an idea of the loudness of your T.

The problem is that loud T greatly masks other sounds at similar frequencies and thus perception of one's hearing threshold at those frequencies. By the time I can "hear" the external sounds, it's already close to my Tinnitus loudness. A "small" increase - say 1-3 dB (3 dB doubles the sound energy) will quickly render the external sound as "loud" as my Tinnitus.

This is no surprise: I learn that when we measure dB, additional sounds usually don't add that much to perception. So if there is 60 dB at say 5.5 khz, having a sound of 59 dB at 6 khz doesn't much to the dB measure of the sound.

So if my T does mask the sound until a certain threshold, so what if after that threshold is reached only a "small" addition is needed for the sound to sound like my T? It seems to me it's a result of masking, not the real "loudness" of the T.

In fact, for truly loud T that masks external sounds, that cannot be easily masked, I w0uld venture that the measured sensorial loudness has to be invariably small - by the explanation given above...

 

[JurgenG]

I wonder: is T always there(for some forms of Tinnitus.) even when you are masking? Or does masking it stops it from generating the T?

 

[linearb]

I'd be skeptical of attempts to do this at home; I've had noise matching done in a lab, and even under those conditions it's tricky and pretty dubious. For one thing, the raw noise level coming out of something doesn't account for whatever your hearing threshold at that frequency is... 65db matched to a 14yr old who can hear a pin drop at 0db, is a lot different than 65db matched to me (and I have excellent hearing for a 35 year old).