If you suffer from tinnitus (I do), it becomes difficult to not hear your interior, artificially high noise floor. I'm one of the lucky ones who doesn't hear distinct notes, transients, or percussive sounds.
White noise is one of several perceptual tools that "mask" white noise. The mechanism-of-action is basically misdirection...flooding the brain with non-specific aural cues makes it harder to focus on one's tinnitus. White noise is effective: I use it for sleep and wouldn't want to do without it.
And thanks to a pretty bad case of chronic migraine, I have several rescue medications that also mask tinnitus to a degree, albeit by very different means than white noise.
For what it's worth, I use either pink noise or gaussian noise mp3's to burn in gear. Gaussian noise is the best sounding/least artificial of the noise variants I've heard.
And yes, echoing several above posts, there's a history of using noise of various kinds in audio gear.
White noise is one of several perceptual tools that "mask" white noise. The mechanism-of-action is basically misdirection...flooding the brain with non-specific aural cues makes it harder to focus on one's tinnitus. White noise is effective: I use it for sleep and wouldn't want to do without it.
And thanks to a pretty bad case of chronic migraine, I have several rescue medications that also mask tinnitus to a degree, albeit by very different means than white noise.
For what it's worth, I use either pink noise or gaussian noise mp3's to burn in gear. Gaussian noise is the best sounding/least artificial of the noise variants I've heard.
And yes, echoing several above posts, there's a history of using noise of various kinds in audio gear.