Can a DSP system help me? ... I have been diagnosed with severe tinnitus
(ringing in the ears) and hyperacusis (sensitive to loud noises). After
attending a play last night with earplugs in to prevent further injury and
pain, and not being able to hear anything anyone was saying, I thought there
must be a better way.

I have some experience with microcontroller programming and with simple
audio circuits and understand the concept of digital processing, but am
certainly not up to speed on it. This all leads me to ask and start the
research ...

Can a DSP device be programmed to simultaneously provide : ???
- Compression - To amplify low level a bit and bring down the high-level
- Absolute max noise limiting - To protect from further damage
- white noise generation (2 or 3 seperate, tuneable white-noise
generators would be desired. One way to deal with severe tinnitus is to
"mask" the noise with white noise of matching frequencies, then use sound
augmentation, "a-la-hearing aid" to bring the normal sound up a few db to
make it heard. These are used long-term in an effort to retrain the ear to
ignore the tinnitus noises.
- multi-frequency equalization (6 band or so) - to adjust for limited
range hearing damage.

I cannot find a device out there that contains all of these components in a
single headphone and I need to know if I should pursue building my own. I
have had this problem for many years and it is getting worse, so I don't
mind putting a bunch of time, money and learning into this project to help
myself.

Thank you in advance for any comments, tips, or suggestions you might offer.

Jim
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Jim Frohoff, jfroh_NO_SPAM_@_NO_SPAM_earthlink.net