[jrace]

As someone who spent over a decade working with heard of hearinga nd hearing amplification devices, I would argue that (much in line with your statement) we don't "hear" anything until the auditory center in the brain process the sound.

Even those with normal hearing do not process all sounds that arrive at out Tympanic Membranes (and if we did...we would likely go insane from over stimulation).

I had quite a few patitents that lost most of there hearing yet still had constant tinnitus.

A small few even reported the tinnitus changing from a constant tone (whne they had mild hearing loss) to almost recognizable speech and/ or music once they had severe hearing loss.

It could be argued that even though they had next to no hearing they still "heard" more than they cared for.