Try speech in noise
An educational exercise where you listen to three digits in background noise and enter what you heard.
How the exercise works
You will hear three digits with noise in the background. Select the digits you heard. A correct answer makes the next round a little harder; an incorrect answer makes it easier. You first get three practice rounds, followed by 23 test rounds.
- Headphones are recommended.
- Choose a quiet place.
- Set a comfortable volume on your phone or computer.
- You can stop the sound or leave the exercise at any time.
The exercise does not use a microphone or measure your actual hearing threshold.
Check your headphones
Play the short sound. You should hear a tone on the left, then on the right.
Choose a comfortable listening level
Set your phone or computer to a comfortable volume. Play the example without noise and listen for three digits.
This is not a physical calibration. Try to keep the same volume for the rest of the exercise.
The digits you heard
Your result
This speech in noise result describes how loud the digits needed to be relative to the background noise in this exercise. It is not a diagnosis or a measurement in dB HL.
- Test rounds
- Completely correct triplets
- Spread of the levels used
You can compare a future attempt using the same device and headphones, but different environments and sessions can change the result.
If hearing is difficult in daily life, contact a healthcare professional for a proper hearing assessment, regardless of your result here.
Read more
About the method
This is our own experimental 1-up/1-down exercise. After a completely correct group of digits, the speech level decreases by 2 dB SNR relative to the noise; after an incorrect answer, it increases by 2 dB. Three practice rounds are followed by 23 test rounds. The result averages later reversals or test levels. This first version uses deterministic white noise and pregenerated, level-normalized spoken digits.
WHO's hearWHO is a separate validated screening tool. This educational exercise is not hearWHO and has not been validated against its results. WHO hearWHO ↗
Meet Elin, the voice in Speech in noise
Elin's voice guides the Swedish exercise. Read how the digit sounds are used.