 Therefore, conventional audiometry is ear specific, with regards to both air and bone conduction audiometry, when masking is applied.Pure-tone audiometry is described as the gold standard for assessment of a hearing loss  but how accurate pure-tone audiometry is at classifying the hearing loss of an individual, in terms of hearing impairment and hearing disability is open to question.Hearing impairment is defined by the World Health Organization (WHO) as a hearing loss with thresholds higher than 25db in one or both ears.