Sound Therapy Devices — Are They Worth It?

I got a real bug up my ass when I saw a $4,200.00 sound therapy device. I got pissed off because part of the sales pitch was that people’s tinnitus isn’t as loud as they think, they just think it is. WHAT THE F**K?

Here’s the good news folks. It doesn’t cost a whole lot of money to produce a circuit board that will produce all types of multiple tones at various frequencies. Just as an example. There’s a company out there that has a FDA "Cleared" device to treat depression. It uses a 9 volt DC battery to generate a very low Alternating Current. You put a sponge electrode on each side of your head next to your ears then turn it on. Generating an AC current from a DC current is about the simplest form of technology and these people want almost $600.00 for it! I used to source component manufacturing from overseas when I was an Independent Manufacturers Representative. A circuit board that will produce a weak AC current would go for about $5.00 in Asia. The plastic mold to produce the plastic case, About $850.00. A mold to produce the snap on clip to hold the battery about $300.00. The company only has to make two sales and they have paid for the cost of their tooling. So, it costs them $5.00 for the circuit board, about 5 cents for the plastic case and about ½ a cent for the battery clip when ordered in large volumes.

There are a lot of depressed people out there. And these sound therapy devices are hand held units! As I said before. It costs almost nothing to produce a device that will generate all types of funky tones and frequencies.

I’m not saying that they will not work. I'm NOT saying that at all.

I’m saying that they should not take such advantage of people who are at their wits end and will pay up to $4,200.00 in an attempt to find relief. You can spend $2,500.00 for a handheld TDCS Device or you can get one that will do the exact same thing for $59.00 on eBay. A Direct Current voltage at .2m amps for $2,500.00 is the same at $59.00.

Cheap electrical components wired together in just the right sequence will produce all kinds of sounds.

 

What I want to know is why they can't put the sounds on a certified smartphone or a high resolution audio player? My smartphone plays really, really good music. I guess the set up and personal programming is where the huge price comes in.

 

I bought a Neuromonics sanctuary on Ebay for 65.00 and did get much relief. There is high frequency tones embebbed in the music that gives some relief and blends with your T so it doesnt bother you while playing it. Some people claim they get the same relief playing classical music on a MP3 player which is very affordable. The neuromonics unit I bought retails for 1500.00 and the VA gives it to serviceman who come back from the middle east with T....Which probably developed from stress and alot of gun firing...causing ear damage...

 

If you think of it the setup and personal programing might take maybe 3 or 4 hours if that. There's only so much processing and testing needed. An audiogram takes only fifteen minutes. With the newer software tinnitus frequency matching takes about another twenty minutes. You can do that online for free so how hard can it be for a tinnitus clinic to do it? Then that information is used to program the device. That is almost instantaneous. If you read the ads they all say this "may" be why this unit "can" work. They never say it will work. And then they will admit that it only works for a certain % of people and can take up to months for it to work even if it does work. So you are paying up to $5,000.00 for a pig in a poke.

 

Research & development costs something too. Marketing costs.

They have to cover those costs in the market price

You don't really know how much costs is involved

 

Hey, I found this...maybe you could ask Steve about it. I'm not sure yet if it is supposed to lower T

https://www.tinnitustalk.com/thread...-generator-—-mynoise-net-collaboration.15795/
https://mynoise.net/NoiseMachines/neuromodulationTonesGenerator.php

 

If that were the case then it would cost $5,000.00 for every new medication that came out.
As far as marketing goes they don't spend a couple of millions of dollars for a thirty second television ad like the drug companies they advertise their devices in magazines like the American Tinnitus Associations Tinnitus Today.

 

lots of drugs do cost thousands of dollars a month.

 

Which ones?

 

@erniej

You live in the US. You should be reading daily scandals about drug pricing by pharmaceutical US companies. The US has the highest cost drugs in the world. One can buy the same drug in Europe for three times less money. There is a treatment for Hepatitis C by Gilead that costs $100k and the company gives the excuse that it saves money because people do not have to go hospitals instead. Healthcare is a full profit business in a rotten system that cares mostly about making money. I am going to give you an example how well things work: A couple of weeks ago I got an audiometry test at the Stanford hospital, it took 15 minutes, and the audiologist told me at the end that my hearing had no changed since the previous test two years ago. Two weeks latter I got a $775 bill, $275 for the audiometry test and $500 for the evaluation. This is the healthcare system we live in. Sound therapy is indeed no better and mundane treatments are oversold with the excuse that are taylored to your hearing loss. Just a rotten system oriented to make money on people that are desperate to get better.

 

A few years ago my doctor wanted to put me on Abilify. Screw that. Anyhow. Even with insurance my copay would have been $600.00 because in the USA there is no generic available. I could have purchased a generic from an Indian distributor for $97.00 for a three month supply. I had purchased other prescriptions from them in the past so I knew that the medications were what they said they were and were safe.

 

well, Soliris costs nearly a half million dollars a year; that's the outlier, but most name-brand drugs with no generics and no insurance will cost hundreds to thousands per month. Sucks!

 

That's right. And if someone does pay $4,200.00 for a sound device I'd be interested in how that worked out for them. As of now I don't see any responses from ANYONE saying that they spent $5,000.00 or $4,2000.00 for ANY treatment that worked for them. Quite a few people have read this thread and no one has come forward and said that they even know anyone that has received positive results from this these types of treatments except for TRT. People have said that has worked for them.

 

There's a (recent) thread actually about a guy claiming SoundCure worked for him.

 

@erniej
Sound Machines
I have recently been asked about the benefits of using a sound machine after someone read my post on another thread, please find it below.

Sound Oasis makes the best sound machines in my opinion and they are specifically designed for people with tinnitus although anyone will benefit using one. The quality of their digital sounds will be far superior to any homemade sounds that you compile if your intention is to use them for sound enrichment.

A sound machine can be used night and day but do their magic best when we are in deep sleep. It supplies the brain and auditory system with sound enrichment. Over time, the tinnitus is pushed further into the background making it less intrusive and will make the path to habituation easier.

I have three Oasis models. The S-650 is very popular and the one I usually recommend people buy. It comes with a variety of sounds on two sound cards. Additional cards can be purchased. The S-850 travel, is more expensive and compact. It has 18 on-board digital sounds and doesn’t use cards. Some people might be bothered by the clock’s blue backlight at night-time. It dims but cannot be turned completely off; the S650 backlight can be set to switch off automatically.

My S-3000 deluxe, was bought over the Internet but has been replaced by the S-5000. Both are similar but have different colours. Silver & black. These models are much larger and sophisticated than the others and can only be mains operated. They use a three-speaker system, that has a subwoofer for increased depth and definition to the sound. According to Oasis, over 140 on-board sound combinations are possible. They have FM/AM radio and an external sound source can be selected via the auxiliary input. There are a host of other features.

The purpose of using a sound machine is to have it playing in the background without drawing attention to itself unlike a radio. For this reason, music mustn’t be used at night for sound enrichment, as it will draw the Brain’s attention and delay habituation.

In my opinion and the advice of Professor Pawel Jastreboff, developer of TRT. Sound enrichment particularly at night should be used by anyone that has intrusive tinnitus. I would go as far to say, it is imperative to do so if you want to help yourself. Over time you will get used to having sound around you both during the day and night. I find it strange to be in a very quiet room now having used a sound machine for so long.

Michael

PS: Many people have contacted me after they have habituated to their T and stopped using sound enrichment at night, only to find their tinnitus becoming intrusive again. The rule of thumb: avoid quiet rooms and surroundings especially at night by using a sound machine.

 

It's like the early TDCS devices. They were very expensive until someone figured out what they were doing and started producing devices that still did the exact thing but were a lot less expensive. Like what Steve is doing on his website. He put a lot of time and effort into his cutting edge tone generator and gives EVERYONE access to it for free. I used to make simple AutoList programs for the metal forming industry and I had to write pages of complicated source code. What he did must have had files after files with pages of pages of computer source code to do what he did. Some websites charge you to produce notched music others show you how to do it for free. I can spend $900.00 for Microsoft Office or I can go to freewarefiles.com and download a clone software that will do all the same things for free. You could argue that Microsoft needs to charge so much to cover whatever expenses but you still have other people that give theirs away and it's Microsoft document - spreadsheet - display compatible. IMO maybe the makers of devices like SoundCure are all smoke and mirrors and as soon as someone with some technical knowledge comes along you will see the same thing for a lot less money.

 

check this out

http://www.konftec.com/html/ko_product_tinnitus.htm?gclid=CO3erqvfqs8CFc1bhgodCmEL7Q