Notched sound therapy with your tinnitus pitch cut out

The evidence is weak. In the first small study (Okamoto, 2010), a year of listening 1–2 hours a day made tinnitus quieter than placebo. The largest placebo-controlled trial (Stein, 2016, 100 people) found no difference on its main measures, reviews from 2024–2025 disagree, and the German clinical guideline advises against the method. Sound can ease tinnitus for a while. This tool does not treat tinnitus and does not replace a doctor.

Tinnitus pitch is hard to pin down: repeated matches by the same person often differ by half an octave or more, and being off by exactly one octave is common. So the first match is practice, each one starts from a random frequency and ends with an octave check, and the average is used. The spread is shown openly: if it is over an octave, try again another day.

Studies removed an octave (Okamoto) or half an octave (Stein); a direct comparison of 1, ½ and ¼ octave found no difference in benefit. Auto uses ½ octave when your matches agree within half an octave and goes wider when the spread is larger, so the notch covers your ringing with room to spare.

The study that compared such pitches (Teismann, 2011) found no benefit above 8 kHz, and most songs have almost no energy there — the label next to the pitch will show it. You can turn on “More treble” or listen to noise, but there is less reason to expect an effect here.

Most likely not. After noise with a band removed, many people hear a faint tone inside that band for a few seconds — a known auditory aftereffect called the Zwicker tone. It fades on its own. If your tinnitus gets louder and stays that way for more than a day, stop listening and see a doctor.

Comfortably and quieter than normal conversation — there is no need to drown out the ringing. Over-ear headphones are best. WHO considers up to 80 dBA for about 40 hours a week safe for adults, but the page cannot tell how loud your headphones play, so go by comfort. If the sound is unpleasant, turn it down or stop.

We checked: MP3 at both 128 and 320 kbps kept the removed band deeper than 40 dB in every measurement — notched noise at 2–14 kHz and music at 1–8 kHz — and the file is 5–12 times smaller than WAV. AAC at 128 kbps and Opus filled the band back in by 8–16 dB in the same test, so they are not offered. WAV is lossless.

Right away for sudden hearing loss, severe dizziness or neurological symptoms. See an ENT doctor or audiologist if the noise pulses with your heartbeat, is only in one ear, has lasted more than six months or gets in the way of your life. This tool does not diagnose anything.