To better understand the difficulties of living with various types of hearing loss we have created this simple comparison using a piece of music and an audiobook, that explores the differences between broadband hearing loss, notches (or noise induced hearing loss), old age, and tinnitus.
All of the examples found on this page use the original music and speech files found here:
Broadband Level Loss
The first example given below enables you to hear what a 10dB and 20dB reduction in broadband level sounds like.
10dB Reduction – Speech
20dB Reduction – Speech
10dB Reduction – Music
20dB Reduction – Music
Notches & Noise Induced Hearing Loss (NIHL)
The following example lets you hear what it’s like to have a notch in your hearing at around 6kHz, simulating noise induced hearing loss that is typically caused by exposure to loud noise for long periods of time. NIHL normally presents itself between 3000-6000Hz, the most sensitive frequency range of human hearing.
Presbycusis or old age
As a person ages their hearing will naturally deteriorate, generally more towards high frequencies. It has been found that presbycusis can start to affect people when they are quite young, and eventually this has an impact on speech perception. It generally tends to effect men more than women! Listen to the examples below:
Presbycusis – Speech
Presbycusis – Music
Tinnitus
Ringing in the ears, or the latin word “tinnitus”, is the effect of hearing a tone when no such sound is present. There are a number of different factors that can cause tinnitus, the most common of which is noise induced hearing loss (NIHL, mentioned above). Other causes range from drugs, to ear infections, to neurological damage or even stress. A amplitude varying 6kHz tone has been applied to the test files to simulate the sound of tinnitus.
Speech – Tinnitus
Music – Tinnitus
Thanks to Beat Easton for the use of their music, ’98 Buick.
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