Hi everyone, I thought I would share this on the forum because it works for me and might just help the odd person. I should add that I did not wear hearing aids until 2 days ago and I know that many tinnitus sufferers do not having hearing loss. I have tried various homemade maskers over the years with varying success, usually it was a personal cd player or walkman linked to headphones or earplugs. But they were all clumsy and I could not wear them in bed and the players were too large to fit in a pj breast pocket. Sometime ago I learnt on this forum about sleep headbands and that resolved the sleeping problem, however, I was never going to wear a headband whilst out shopping. I suddenly had a eureka moment whilst trawling the internet, on Ebay I found a very tiny mp3 player and next I found a single headphone type earpiece (not a plug) and I now had a masker I could use for 24 hours either with the earpiece or headband. Up till then I had only used the BTA white/brown/pink and purple noise cds on continuous loop and of course I loaded those from my computer onto my new digital mp3 player using a USB cable link. I was delighted to find that my new tiny machine played consecutive tracks without break, so by loading any one track 8 times I had enough to get through the night. I had another fantastic break when I found a website (mc2method.org/white-noise/) which allows free downloads for personal use of white noise and 50 other sounds such as streams, waves, rainfall etc. I now have a huge library of sounds and the volume controls on this machine are great. I only use this now at night because my new aids have a 4 programme sound generator in each aid.
If anyone is interested you can be up and running for less than £20. Look for Rechargeable Digital Sound Recorder 8GB Voice MP3 Player Sound Recorder for £11.95 and Single Mono Headphone Earpiece 3.5mm Mono Jack £5.55, these are on Ebay. The headband costs around £12 from Amazon, not expensive as I also use it as an eye mask.
Tinnitus is bearable, but my hyperacusis is debilitating - phone calls and online meetings unbearable - and a bit about my journey.
How do I manage? 
Sleep help with Tinnitus
New Tinnitus Support Needed 
Hearing Aids
