Pick a Hearing Test to Take
All tests are best performed in a very quiet environment with headphones

TONE - Based Hearing Test

Tone-based hearing tests are THE initial main tests used to determine whether hearing loss is present or not. We offer two different types of tone-based hearing tests. The tones may be warble (standard) or continuous (slider-based). We typically recommend the "Standard" test be used.

SPEECH - Based Hearing Test

The WIN (Word-In-Noise) test plays a background noise while presenting a word list of varying loudness. Hearing ability is determined by how many words are accurately identified and is NOT meant to be easy... even for a normal hearing person. Those with hearing loss, some type of auditory processing disorder, or suffering from "hidden" hearing loss will perform poorly on this test. BUT, if one correctly identifies ALL words in this test, you would be considered to have SUPER-human hearing ability. Video instructions can be found here. The second test is known as the SRT (Speech Reception Threshold) and it determines what is the minimal loudness required in order for a person to understand speech. This test is performed without any background noise.

Quiet Room Check (Optional): Is Your Room Quiet Enough?

In order for any hearing test to provide reliable results, the testing environment must be quiet! The louder the environment, the greater the tendency for test results to show hearing loss where none should be present. A sound check ensures you are in a quiet enough room to accurately perform the online hearing test. In a home, the most quiet room typically would be inside a closet full of clothes. During this test, try not to make any noises for the duration of the test (about 8 seconds) when the average dB stabilizes.

Click here to perform a sound meter check!

If the testing environment showed either an excellent or good score, proceed to step 1. Otherwise, try to find a quieter room and repeat this step. One can still proceed with the hearing test even if the results show a poor score, but understand that the hearing test results may not be accurate.

Background Information

Common speech hearing tests include speech reception threshold (SRT) as well as speech discrimination score (SDS) which are performed without any background noise.

Alternative speech hearing tests include those performed in background noise. More rarely performed in practice, these speech-in-noise (SIN) or word-in-noise (WIN) tests make "more sense" in that it provides information on how well a person can hear in daily life activities, especially for those who complain of difficulty understanding speech in noisy environments (ie, restaurants). Interestingly, how well a person performs on speech-in-quiet (SIQ) tests like the SRT and SDS do NOT predict how well the same person will perform on SIN/WIN tests. When an individual performs poorly on a SIN/WIN test, but has a normal hearing test, this may suggest "hidden" hearing loss or some type of central auditory processing disorder (CAPD). When performed in-person, SIN/WIN tests involve accurately repeating back a sentence/word while background noise is present at varying degrees of loudness.

When it comes to online SIN/WIN tests, one of the best studied example of online SIN tests is the Dutch website "EarCheck." The CheckHearing online WIN speech hearing test provided here is based on the Dutch EarCheck program, but of course in English along with other slight modifications.

Technical Information: For the WIN test, the noise is presented at 65dB. The word list used is taken from NU-6 and is presented at either 41dB, 47dB, or 59dB. For the SRT test, the spondaic word list used is taken from ASHA 1979 and is presented between 10-60dB.

For the SRT test, words are presented starting at 60 dB down to 10 dB. Once user answers 3 out of 6 words correctly at a given dB level, that is the SRT score.

Any information provided on this website should not be considered medical advice or a substitute for a consultation with a physician. If you have a medical problem, contact your local physician for diagnosis and treatment. Advertisements present are clearly labelled and in no way support the website or influence the contents. Please note that as an Amazon Associate, we may earn small commissions from qualifying purchases from Amazon.com.