Sound masking for tinnitus: what it is and how to set it up
Sound masking means keeping a quiet, steady sound going in the room, usually rain, a fan or a plain hiss, so the ringing isn’t the only thing there to hear. It doesn’t do anything to your tinnitus. It changes what else is in the room with you. Plenty of people with tinnitus keep something playing for that reason alone, at a level they could talk over, and you can hear what that’s like with rain in a browser tab, no account and nothing to pay, before you install or buy a thing. Ringing that’s new, one-sided or pulsing along with your heartbeat needs a doctor before it needs a speaker, and no honest page can promise you a quieter night.
A doctor comes before any of this
If your tinnitus is new, the first stop is a primary care doctor, not an app. The US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders says to start there, because a doctor can check whether earwax or an infection is blocking the ear canal. Ringing in one ear only, ringing that pulses along with your heartbeat, and any sudden change in your hearing all need a proper look, and a hearing test with an audiologist or an ENT doctor is the usual next step. A sound player diagnoses nothing, and nothing below replaces that appointment.
What masking actually is
Your ears are always listening to something. In a quiet bedroom, a constant internal sound is about the only thing on offer, so that’s where your attention lands. A masking sound gives the room a second thing to hear, something dull and predictable that you can stop paying attention to after a few minutes.
What changes is the room around you; your hearing is untouched. The NIDCD lists tabletop and phone-based sound generators as something people use to relax or to get to sleep, playing waves, waterfalls, rain or a summer night, and points out that plenty of people just turn on a radio or a household fan instead. Slo is the same kind of thing with a volume slider, a timer and a mixer for running two sounds together. There’s no tinnitus frequency matching in it, and any page that offers to pick a pitch for your ringing is making that up.
How to set it up, and how loud
Pick one sound and give it a week. Rain and brown noise are where most people start, because they hold a fairly even character and there’s no speech in them to catch your ear. Set the level while you’re still sitting up and doing something ordinary, not in the dark with your eyes closed.
The level is the part people get wrong. Aim for the quietest setting that still puts something audible in the room, low enough that a conversation over the top of it would be easy. Don’t try to bury the ringing under a wall of noise: turn a masking sound up that far and you’ve simply handed yourself a second sound you can’t ignore. If your ears feel tired, it’s too loud. Keep your alarm, your doorbell and anybody speaking to you audible.
Play these three at the same low level for a minute apiece, then stay with whichever one fades into the background soonest.
Brown noise is a deep rumble, like a waterfall heard through a wall. White noise is the flat hiss of escaping air. A fan recording sits somewhere between the two with a little movement in it. Which one covers a high ringing tone more closely, and which one is easier to live with for eight hours, is its own question, and the white noise and brown noise comparison takes it apart properly.
Daytime and nighttime ask for different things
During the day the job is usually to stop a room going silent while you work or read. A low background from a speaker on a shelf does that, and you can leave it running for hours without thinking about it. Skip anything with talking in it, because a podcast or the radio pulls your attention onto the words; a steady sound with nobody speaking is easier company. Take a break from it when the room gets busy on its own.
At night the question is different, because it’s mostly about the timer. If the ringing only bothers you while you’re settling, 30 or 60 minutes covers that and leaves the rest of the night alone. If you tend to surface at three in the morning into a silent house, quiet playback until morning suits you better. Our bedtime routine for tinnitus goes through the settings one at a time, and if you’re here because the ringing seems to grow after dark, the short version is that a quiet room has less in it to distract you, which why tinnitus is more noticeable at night covers with the sources.
Where to play it from
A small speaker across the room is the easier setup at home. Distance does a lot of the work, so you get a room that isn’t silent without pressing sound into your ear for hours. A phone speaker on its own is thin and tempts you to turn it up, which is the move to avoid. If you want a deep rumble like brown noise, a phone can’t really produce it at all.
Earbuds earn their place where a speaker would be rude or useless: a desk in a shared office, a train, a hotel room with someone asleep next to you. They put the sound much closer to your ears, so set them quieter than you’d set a speaker, and take them out for a while every few hours. Nothing goes under the pillow.
What masking can’t do
It can’t make the ringing go away, and nobody can honestly sell it to you as therapy. When Cochrane reviewers pooled the trials of sound therapy for tinnitus in 2018, they couldn’t show it beating a waiting list, a dummy device or plain information with no device at all, and they rated the evidence low quality. Those trials used hearing aids and clinical sound generators rather than phone apps, so the review neither backs an app nor rules one out. Either way, nobody can promise you a result.
Clinical guidance goes a small step further. The 2014 tinnitus guideline from the American Academy of Otolaryngology-Head and Neck Surgery Foundation says clinicians “may offer” sound therapy when tinnitus has lasted six months or more and is bothering the patient. “May offer” means it’s optional: a clinician can suggest it or skip it. The same guideline recommends cognitive behavioral therapy more strongly. So if the ringing is wearing you down, ask an audiologist about that before you spend money on sound.
Masking also has plain limits as sound. It never removes anything; it only adds. And voices are the hard case for any background sound, because your brain keeps hunting for speech inside it, so a neighbor’s television gets blurred and never disappears.
Read next
- How to sleep with tinnitus is the full bedtime routine: volume, timer length and layering.
- White noise vs brown noise for tinnitus compares how the two sound, with no claim that either one does something to your ears.
- Why tinnitus is more noticeable at night explains the quiet room, according to MedlinePlus and ASHA.
- Best tinnitus masking apps in 2026 covers what to look for in a player, including one app that beats Slo on spectrum control.
Questions people ask
What is sound masking for tinnitus?
It’s playing a quiet, steady sound so the ringing isn’t the only thing in the room. Rain, a fan and a plain hiss are the usual choices. It describes what you’re doing with a speaker, not something happening to your ears.
How loud should a masking sound be?
Quiet enough that you could hold a conversation over it. Use the lowest level that still puts something audible in the room, and don’t try to drown the ringing out, because a loud background just gives you a second sound you can’t ignore. Turn it down if your ears feel tired.
Which sound should I start with?
Rain and brown noise are the usual first picks, because they hold a fairly steady character and there’s no speech in them. Play brown noise and white noise on the same evening and keep whichever one you stop noticing sooner.
Speaker or earbuds?
A small speaker across the room is the easier option at home, and a phone speaker on its own is thin. Earbuds make sense at a desk or on a train, where a speaker would bother other people. Keep the volume lower with earbuds than you would with a speaker, and keep anything off your pillow.
Should I leave it on all night or use a timer?
Both are common. A timer suits you if the ringing bothers you while you’re settling and not after that. If you tend to wake at three into a silent room, quiet playback through the night suits you better. Try one for a week before you switch.
Is sound masking a treatment for tinnitus?
No. Slo is a sound player, not a medical device. A Cochrane review of sound therapy couldn’t show it beating a waiting list, a dummy device or plain information, and ringing that’s new, one-sided or pulsing belongs with a doctor.
Sources
- Cochrane review of sound therapy for tinnitus, Sereda and colleagues 2018: CD013094
- Tinnitus page at the US National Institute on Deafness and Other Communication Disorders
- Clinical practice guideline on tinnitus, Tunkel and colleagues 2014: PubMed record
Explore more sounds in Slo
Stack two or three sounds, keep the blend, and let the timer stop it. Slo, on iOS, Android and Mac.
