Variability in matches to subjective tinnitus.

For patients with noise-induced sensorineural hearing loss, the results of matching a binaurally presented comparison tone to subjective tinnitus during a 20-day test period are reported. As a control, results of matching an external comparison tone to a standard tone are also presented. The variability for tinnitus measurements was extremely large relative to comparable measures for objective stimuli. The relevance of this finding to the nature of tinnitus and to the construction of tinnitus maskers is discussed.