r/Audiophilehelp

Hello

I have misophonia. I am Autistic with ADHD and everything. I also have C-PTSD and GAD.

I have a lot of trauma flashbacks. They have definitely been a thorn in my side since December when things got very stressful for me.

I realize that I really cannot stand the sound of my own thoughts or silence for that matter.

Whenever there is silence, my mind... Actually starts to get anxious. I don't know if anyone typically has this at all? I feel like I'm one of the very few that has this problem.

Instead of silence being typically calming, it may make me anxious.

For the past several years, what calms me down at night is literally the air conditioning.

It seems that white noise in general, especially depending on the white noise (there are other white noises better than the air conditioning in my home), can really help put me to sleep.

It seems especially that when the cool air is on, it helps put me to sleep. Yes, cool air around the room can do that, I know, but the air conditioning for cool air around the house is quite distinct for the warm or hot air conditioning.

With that said

I'm trying to look for:

Ear plugs that are not only effective but don't need to be washed or washed much to begin with. Maybe no rubber ear plugs if I can help it. I think I need a different material.

Earphones that can block out all sound, not just a little sound or half the sound in your general vicinity. The Bose earphones that I have that cost $200 or so kinda broke shortly after a week or so (couldn't even produce its own sound or even that white noise or background noise feature it had, which was admittedly pretty good in terms of sound quality, I thought).

Objects, devices, furniture of some sort, anything, that can induce sound (and I mean REAL sound at that). Whenever I buy a sound or noise machine, it just feels... Fake? Hard to exactly say. It seems that the acoustics of my house work well to put me at ease when there's a soothing sound in the background.

Is there any way to block out the sound from outside completely? The door to my room that I installed is not good enough.

What white noises (or pink noises, brown noises, etc., etc., etc.) help you focus or go to sleep or be at ease? Maybe mention stuff or background noises that aren't just white noise but other things. For example, chimes in the background used to really help me calm down, though I feel that the chimes outside don't really do a good job and only make a sound, like, once a month lol

Also, if I am going to get an electronic device that makes sound at all (such as the white noise machine I got and then sold earlier), I really need good quality speakers or anything that can enhance the quality of the sound.

I have a Redmagic Astra tablet. It's a great tablet. It can even play video games very well, even up to certain PS5 games. But the speakers or sound emitting from the tablet are... Kinda "fake"-sounding? A bit off. Somewhat better than the last tablet I had. But you can tell that the sound is coming from a tablet, you know? Hope that makes sense. I say this because I tried using the Atmosphere app and putting background noises with the tablet somewhat beneath my bed or otherwise nearby but something about it just didn't sound right and I think it just tired me in a way that was more agitative than soothing; not sure how to describe it. I guess that, if any electronic device with speakers is going to be used, I really need good quality sound or maybe the best it can be.

I'm not sure what else I could possibly need. Maybe good music or music genre recommendations. I already listen to a lot of classical music here and there, but might be interested in other genres. Oh, btw, avoid giving genres or music that uses vocals.

I guess if you can point me to good sources on how sound works and what I should be looking for in terms of sound quality, that would be most appreciated (though I am definitely doing my own research on that).

I think that's literally all I can say.

Thanks in advance. I hope that you can give me suggestions or recommendations on what I need, even stuff I didn't think of.