[Sean C]

I do sometimes hear a hum, very much like the 100 Hz tone on page 1. However, I live near some train tracks, and I thought it was probably a locomotive idling nearby. The sound is relatively quiet, but it does seem to be louder inside my house than out. I find it annoying ... distracting even, but not unbearable. And I don't think it has caused me any ill health effects. I haven't noticed a correlation with my migraines.

The sound sometimes varies in intensity, and sometimes seems to briefly fade out and then back in. It is always relatively low volume, but being a low frequency it can still be audible with moderate background noise. (Think: semi-distant car stereo with big sub woofers.) As with all low frequency sounds, it seems impossible to determine the direction from which it is coming.

My wife does not seem to notice it at all. She does have hearing loss due to tinnitus, though. She got hearing aids a little while back, but I have not had a chance to see if she hears it while wearing them. I played in a rock band for many years, and I also have tinnitus. But I think it is a mild case, because I am able to "tune it out" if I have any way of distracting myself. IOW, I only really notice it if I pay attention to it. Otherwise, my hearing is excellent.

Seems to me that there are times, perhaps periods of a couple months, when I will hear the sound more frequently. Other times I go so long without hearing it that I almost forget about it. Right now it is the latter. If I start hearing it again, I'll let you know. It would be interesting to me to see if it occurs at the same time in vastly different locations.


EDIT: Apparently I can hear frequencies in a range of about 20 Hz to 14,500 Hz.