Are your listening levels healthy? Doing damage?

My experience with a few Android SPL meter apps was that they were garbage. Not accurate at all. Buy a "real" calibrated SPL meter from a reputable brand and call it a day. It should last you a lifetime as long as you don’t leave batteries in it more than a year at a time (leaking batteries is sadly still a thing here in 2023).

I listen in the 80 to 85dB range most of the time, occasionally "rocking out" once in a blue moon to the low 90s. At night, I listen to music in the mid-70s range to wind down and go to sleep. I learned my lesson. And too many loud concerts have taken their toil over the years, along with ironically my various car systems over the years. I really did more damage with my car systems than I ever did with my "real" stereos. I have 8000Hz tinnitus now that varies from being ignorable to being pretty loud depending on my stress level. I wouldn’t wish tinnitus on the Devil. It is definitely no fun and distracts from the pleasure of listening to music.

@macg19 

Yes, tinnitus is "associated" with hearing loss, but there are other schools of thought as well. My hearing is typical for most 65 year olds, rolling off at 12KHz. Yet, like many, my tinnitus seems to manifest itself as a continuous sine wave at 8KHz. Why is unknown. 

I can only tell you that from day to day my intake of coffee and alcohol is usually the same every week, yet my perception of the volume level fluctuates considerably. My otolaryngologist, Angelia Natili, MD, FAAOA, was the one who told me that stress can indeed affect the perceived levels you hear. 

The competing school of thought regarding tinnitus suggest that it has absolutely nothing to do with hearing loss and instead is a brain/nervous system interaction wherein the brain "hears" the nervous system. Still, why it manifests itself at 8KHz is a mystery. 

Currently there are no legitimate therapeutic treatments. The main thing being offered are "masker hearing aids" that provide a "sssshhh" sound to cover up the tinnitus. I've decided to not go that route. There are also lots of "snake oil" treatments out there (just do a search on YouTube and you'll find a bunch of them). 

More research is needed for this. There are millions of sufferers around the world who could benefit. Just in the U.S. alone, 15% (50 million people) have it. 

There are a very few actual treatments going through the clinical trials. I've already asked my otolaryngologist to let me know if and when they participate in such trials. I want to be in on them. 
 

@ddafoe +1 on the Reed Instruments. Is $180 "expensive"? Not if you care about your hearing. That’s cheaper than many spend on a decent set of RCA interconnects.

The problem with many of these phone apps is that you have no way of knowing if they were matched to the microphones and preamps in these devices. That one guy above, Jon, says the one for his specific iPhone is "close" to a calibrated SPL was fortunate. Good for him. Perhaps Apple commands such a market share that the developers could spend the time getting it right. 

I doubt all these developers take the time to get real data on the myriad of phones out there, especially Android except for certain Samsung phones. And then, where do they get this information?

How do we even know the frequency range and response of these microphones and preamps in our cell phones. I mean they are mainly designed (and perhaps even intentionally limited) to pick up and amplify human speech (85Hz to 255Hz), not music. In telephony, the usable voice frequency band ranges from approximately 300 to 3400 Hz. Note that 300Hz is indeed above the fundamentals, but they say, "However, enough of the harmonic series will be present for the missing fundamental to create the impression of hearing the fundamental tone."

So, your phone likely has a sampling frequency of 8000Hz in order to cover decently up to 4000Hz, and whether the microphone goes any higher (or lower than 300Hz) with a decent linear response is open to question and experimental tests.

At least if you buy a legit SPL meter (a good one) they let you know the frequency range it covers (31.5 Hz to 8 kHz in the case of the Reed Instruments) and its accuracy (±1.4 dB - which isn’t that good but "decent").

@macg19 The only legitimate treatment I've seen undergoing clinical trials is the Lenire tinnitus treatment from Neuromod that got FDA NeNovo Approval, by using bimodal neuromodulation to significantly reduce tinnitus symptoms.

Where this sits and where it is going is up to anyone's guess. I wish there were ways to find out more about it. This is the one I asked my otolaryngologist about, but she said they were not involved in any clinical trials at this time.  I wish. 

She wrote back saying, "No clinics are listed as offering it in USA yet. You could reach out to one of the academic centers like Wake Forest, UNC, or Duke that have ENT residencies, that would probably be the earliest availability."

I've never used hearing aids so I don't know how they would be. Do they "augment" what you are hearing in realtime? Or would you hear say your speakers then hear a separate sound coming from the hearing aid? IDK. That (and the needless expense you mentioned) is one reason I've never been interested in them. 

Oh, they normally don't go much above 8KHz.  Not sure why. But I asked the guy running the tests if he could do a frequency sweep and he obliged. 

I was able to match my 8000Hz tinnitus by using an online tool.  She said that one was the most common for whatever reason. 

Is your hearing loss between 500 and 6000Hz "fixable" if you used an EQ? Or is it simply "not there"? 

Hang in there. Maybe one day some of these issues will have fixes or treatments. 

@macg19 That's expensive, but less than a hearing aid. In the three clinical trials I read about with the Lenire device, about 87% said it improved their symptoms.  Now, how "much" it improved their perception of it I don't know. Hopefully your doctor can clue you into his own experience with it and his patients. Good luck! 

I live in NC and so far, no place around here offers it. But I'll keep hoping.