Understand the test
Hearing vs listening
Why a normal tone test can sit alongside a genuinely hard classroom.
Read the guide →The auditory pathway
Follow a sound from the cochlea to the cortex, relay by relay, and see where each part of your listening profile is decided.
Read the guide →Speech in noise
The listening test that matches real life, and how to read its score.
Read the guide →How online hearing tests work
What a browser-based screening can and cannot measure, step by step.
Read the guide →Audiogram explained
How to read the frequency-by-frequency chart of your hearing.
Read the guide →Hearing thresholds and decibels
What a threshold is, what the numbers mean, and how precise they are.
Read the guide →Understand the method
Bayesian adaptive hearing testing
The adaptive algorithm behind a four-minute screening, in full detail.
Read the guide →Test-retest reliability
Measurement spread, catch trials, and telling real change from noise.
Read the guide →Headphone accuracy in hearing tests
Why your headphones matter, which models we correct for, and by how much.
Read the guide →Protect your hearing
Linked guides are published in English.
Our position on evidence
Audiomaxxer is a hearing screening and listening-training tool, not a diagnostic device. Adaptive and task-specific training may improve learning efficiency and transfer, although the magnitude of benefit varies across studies and populations. Training improves listening performance; it does not repair damaged cochlear hair cells.
Consumer headphones, browser volume, room noise and behaviour limit the precision of an online test. Our results are best used to follow your own patterns over time, not as a substitute for a clinical assessment.
References
- WHO — Over 1 billion young people at risk of hearing loss from unsafe listening practices
World Health Organization / BMJ Global Health, 2022
- WHO — Deafness and hearing loss fact sheet (1.5 billion people affected)
World Health Organization
- WHO — Make Listening Safe / global standard for safe listening devices
World Health Organization, 2022
- Kontsevich & Tyler — Bayesian adaptive estimation of psychometric slope and threshold
Vision Research, 1999
- Watson & Pelli — QUEST: a Bayesian adaptive psychometric method
Perception & Psychophysics, 1983
- Ferguson MA & Henshaw H — Auditory training can improve working memory, attention, and communication in adverse conditions for adults with hearing loss
Frontiers in Psychology, 2015; 6:556
- Henshaw & Ferguson — Efficacy of individual computer-based auditory training for people with hearing loss: a systematic review
PLOS ONE, 2013
- Shargorodsky et al. — Change in prevalence of hearing loss in US adolescents
JAMA, 2010
- Liberman et al. — Toward a Differential Diagnosis of Hidden Hearing Loss in Humans
PLOS ONE, 2016; 11(9):e0162726