Hearing loss simulator
Hearing loss is rarely about volume — it’s about clarity. Listen to the same everyday conversation the way different degrees of hearing loss shape it, add a busy room, then switch hearing aids on and hear the difference. Headphones give the truest picture; keep them at a comfortable level.
Start clear, then compare without restarting.
Real background sound competes with speech.
The shape of the loss driving the sound — the same chart a hearing test produces. Navy is unaided; the dashed green line is with hearing aids.
Try listening before you read. Speech usually gets tiring before it gets inaudible.
Mark: Jack could have fitted on that door.
Emma: He tried.
Mark: He touched it once, it wobbled, and he gave up. That’s not trying. That’s how you test whether a chair’s wet.
Emma: It wouldn’t hold them both.
Mark: It was enormous. Rose was lying in the middle like she’d booked a sunbed.
Emma: She was freezing and traumatised.
Mark: She still could’ve shuffled over.
Emma: I’d have stayed in the water.
Mark: You refuse to get into a swimming pool unless it’s heated.
Emma: Different situation.
Mark: You complained that our hotel bath was “aggressively lukewarm.”
Emma: In an emergency, I’d be brave.
Mark: You rang me last week because there was a spider near the back door.
Emma: It was blocking the exit.
Mark: So, Titanic. You’re in the water. I’m on the door. What do you do?
Emma: Tell you I love you.
Mark: Then what?
Emma: Ask you to move your massive coat.
Mark: Correct. Because I’d make room.
Emma: You would?
Mark: Obviously. I’m not spending the rest of my life explaining to people why I let you freeze.
Emma: That’s quite romantic.
Mark: It’s basic spatial awareness.
This is an illustration, not a hearing test. It shows how reduced audibility across pitches affects speech — it isn’t a diagnosis or a recreation of any one person’s hearing, and your device, headphones and own hearing all change what you hear. All audio is processed in your browser; nothing is recorded or uploaded. Please don’t turn the volume up to compensate for the quieter, simulated settings.
This is a demonstration, not a measurement. A full hearing assessment takes about an hour and is free, with no obligation, at our Wickersley clinic.
