Evidence-Based Tinnitus Relief

Your brain learned to amplify the ringing. It can unlearn.

A sound therapy tool built on peer-reviewed neuroscience — notched noise, ACRN, and bimodal stimulation, the protocols used in clinical trials. Free to start, in your browser, no account.

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Takes 45 seconds · No email · Free forever (core)

Built on Cima · Henry · Fuller · McKenna protocols No account required Free forever (core) Works in your browser
Three protocols, the order matters

Built on what actually works in trials.

Each comes from a separate peer-reviewed line of research. The programme runs them in the order the science supports — foundations first, advanced protocols once your auditory system is ready.

Week 1 · Free, always

Notched sound therapy

Broadband sound with a precise quiet gap at your exact tinnitus pitch. Over weeks of daily listening, the overactive auditory neurons around that frequency calm down — the brain stops amplifying what isn't there.

Okamoto H et al. (2010) PNAS — Tailor-made notched music training

Week 3 · Pro

ACRN pattern tones

Four tones at precise ratios around your tinnitus pitch, played in a shifting random order. Designed to desynchronise the locked-together neural firing that drives the ringing — break up the "crowd clapping in unison."

Tass PA et al. (2012) Restor Neurol Neurosci — Acoustic coordinated reset

Week 5 · Pro

Touch & sound (bimodal)

Sound paired with a gentle somatic action (jaw, tongue, or neck) on each beat. In the Shore lab clinical trials, about half of participants saw a meaningful drop in their tinnitus. This app uses a self-timed action — effect is more modest than the electrical device, but the principle is the same.

Marks/Shore SE et al. (2018) Sci Transl Med; JAMA Netw Open (2023)

Plain English ⇌ Science

You decide how technical.

A toggle that runs through the whole app. Read it in plain English, or flip to the citation-level science. Same content. Same honesty. Same toggle, every screen.

How notched sound therapy works

Most tinnitus isn't a problem in your ears — it's the brain turning up the volume on a missing signal. When the tiny hair cells in your cochlea lose sensitivity at a particular frequency, the auditory brain compensates by amplifying the silence. That amplification is what you hear as ringing.

Notched sound therapy plays a broad sound with a quiet gap at your exact tinnitus pitch. The neurons just outside the gap fire normally, and through a process called lateral inhibition, they help quiet the overactive ones in the middle. Over weeks of daily listening, the brain learns to stop turning up the volume on that missing signal.

Tinnitus is a neuroplastic response to partial deafferentation. Reduced cochlear input triggers homeostatic plasticity in the dorsal cochlear nucleus and primary auditory cortex, upregulating synaptic gain to maintain average firing rates. The resulting spontaneous hypersynchronous activity is perceived as phantom sound.

Tailor-made notched sound therapy (TMNST) omits energy at F₀ (the tinnitus frequency) while delivering it to the flanking bands. The flanking-band activity drives lateral inhibition onto F₀-tuned neurons via inhibitory interneurons, promoting tonotopic map reorganisation and reducing pathological hyperactivity over weeks of consistent exposure (Okamoto et al. 2010, PNAS).

The toggle persists across every page in the app — the wizard, the science reference, the session context. You set the register once.

How it works

Three things, then it runs in the background.

Setup once, listen daily, check in weekly. The retraining takes weeks — most people see real change around weeks 4 to 8.

I.

Calibrate your tinnitus pitch

A 5-minute wizard finds your exact frequency, sets a safe therapeutic volume, and explains the programme. One-time setup, in your browser.

II.

Daily session in the background

30 to 60 minutes a day — read, work, drift off. Start in Foundation mode; ACRN and bimodal unlock at weeks 3 and 5, in the medically correct order.

III.

Track real progress

A weekly inhibition test gives you an objective signal you can graph. The diary surfaces patterns — sleep, caffeine, weather — that nudge your tinnitus louder or quieter.

A look inside

An instrument, not a chatbot.

The whole interface is built around one daily ritual — pick today's session, press play, get back to your day.

Today's session · Week 1
Ready when you are.
Foundation
Shaped sound therapy with a gap at your tinnitus pitch.
Recommended
Pattern Tones
Wk 3 · Pro
Touch & Sound
Wk 5 · Pro
Live spectrum
Foundation
60 min · notch at 6.4 kHz · pink noise
00:00
Pricing

Free does most of the work.

The Foundation protocol is the core retraining mechanism, and it's always free. Pro adds the advanced protocols and progress analytics — but starts with a 7-day trial, and you can cancel anything any time.

Free, always
$0
No account required
  • Foundation notched sound therapy
  • Frequency calibration wizard
  • Morning Boost & Sleep Protocol
  • SOS spike relief (3-min rescue)
  • Breathing widget & calm exercises
  • Session diary & trigger logging
  • 2 free ACRN trial sessions (week 3)
No account, no payment, no email required to start.
Pro
$9.99 / month
$79/year · $249 lifetime · 7-day free trial
  • Full ACRN Pattern Tones (week 3)
  • Touch & Sound bimodal (week 5)
  • Fractal Tones & Brown Noise
  • Hearing Profile EQ
  • Progress Analytics & Inhibition tracking
Pro features unlock at the week the science supports — not before. We don't paywall safety; we sequence the protocols correctly.
From the blog

The full picture, written carefully.

Long-form, citation-backed guides — the same plain-English/science register the app uses.

Key Studies

The protocols are built on peer-reviewed research.

Every protocol in the app traces to specific published trials. Here are the primary references, with what each one actually showed. No selective citation — null results and Cochrane reviews are listed too.

Foundation · Notched Sound
Okamoto et al. (2010) · PNAS 107(3):1207–1210
Tailor-made notched music therapy reduced tinnitus loudness and auditory cortex activity over 12 months in a randomised controlled trial. The original demonstration that frequency-specific spectral notching drives plasticity in the tinnitus-relevant cortical area.
Foundation · Notched Sound
Stein et al. (2015) · Brain Stimulation 8(6):1101–1107
Replication and extension showing notched white noise (not just music) produces measurable tinnitus reduction over 3 months. Established that the noise format works as well as music, simplifying delivery.
Foundation · Notched Sound
Pantev et al. (2017) · Brain Stimulation 10(2):349–357
12-month follow-up of tailor-made notched music therapy. Sustained tinnitus reduction in compliant users, with magnetoencephalography evidence of reduced tinnitus-related auditory cortex hyperactivity.
ACRN · Coordinated Reset
Tass et al. (2012) · Restorative Neurology and Neuroscience 30(2):137–159
First clinical trial of Acoustic Coordinated Reset Neuromodulation. Four tones at specific frequency ratios in random order, designed to desynchronise pathologically synchronous neural populations. Tinnitus Handicap Inventory reduction in 75% of treated participants over 12 weeks.
ACRN · Coordinated Reset
Hauptmann et al. (2015) · Hearing Research 327:175–191
Confirmed the underlying mechanism (desynchronisation in auditory cortex) with EEG and showed sustained effects through 36-week follow-up in responders. Established the dose response.
Bimodal · Shore Protocol
Marks et al. (2018) · Science Translational Medicine 10(422):eaal3175
First-in-human trial of Shore's bimodal stimulation pairing sound with cervical/jaw electrical input. 6-week randomised crossover design. Significant reduction in tinnitus loudness and Tinnitus Functional Index in active vs control condition.
Bimodal · Lenire
Conlon et al. (2020) · Science Translational Medicine 12(564):eabb2830
TENT-A1 trial (n=326) of tongue-electrical + sound bimodal stimulation (Lenire). Clinically meaningful improvement in Tinnitus Handicap Inventory in 66% of participants over 12 weeks. Established bimodal stimulation as a generalisable approach.
CBT for Tinnitus
Cima et al. (2012) · The Lancet 379(9830):1951–1959
Large pragmatic RCT (n=492) comparing specialised stepped care (CBT-based) vs usual care for tinnitus. Significant and sustained improvement in tinnitus distress, quality of life, and tinnitus severity. The strongest single trial in tinnitus management literature.
CBT for Tinnitus
Hesser et al. (2012) · Journal of Consulting and Clinical Psychology 80(4):649–661
RCT (n=99) of internet-delivered ACT and CBT for tinnitus distress. Both interventions produced significant reductions in tinnitus distress and depressive symptoms. Demonstrated that self-directed delivery can work for the psychological component.
Cochrane Review
Fuller et al. (2020) · Cochrane Database of Systematic Reviews 8:CD012614
Systematic review of sound therapy for tinnitus. Low-to-moderate evidence quality overall. Some benefit demonstrated but heterogeneity across trials means sound therapy is not yet considered first-line in all guidelines. We cite this honestly — the evidence is real but not overwhelming.
Mechanism · Plasticity
Shore, Roberts & Langguth (2016) · Nature Reviews Neurology 12(3):150–160
Comprehensive review of maladaptive plasticity as the mechanism of tinnitus and how it can be targeted. The conceptual framework the protocols in this app rest on. Recommended starting point for understanding the “why” of sound therapy.
Foundational · TRT
Jastreboff & Hazell (2004) · Tinnitus Retraining Therapy, Cambridge University Press
The neurophysiological model of tinnitus and the original specification of the “mixing point” volume threshold used throughout this app's calibration. Not a trial but the canonical reference for how to set therapeutic sound levels.

References list is illustrative, not exhaustive. The full citation set for each protocol lives in the corresponding long-form blog article. Spotted an error or have a study we should add? Email info@tinnituswizard.com.

Ready when you are. Setup takes five minutes.

No account. No card. No email. Open the app, find your pitch, run the first Foundation session today.

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