Hi. Thank you for writing to HCM. Your husband seems to be describing a condition called a tinnitus which can present with echoey robotic sounds. It is an indication of inner ear injury, specifically the outer hair cells in the cochlea possibly due to noise exposure. The voice of your girls (High frequency sounds) hurting his ears are very typical of high frequency hearing loss. There is pain and irritation if these sounds are heard. There may be an underlying eustachian tube (ET) dysfunction due to a bad cold. Your husband needs an ENT Consultation for evaluation and management of this condition. I am afraid that this is not something that can be tackled without proper investigations and if neglected can cost him his hearing. In my opinion he needs the following 1. A hearing test - Pure tone audiogram to see the nature of nerve damage if any (would be suggested by a dip in hearing at higher frequencies) 2. Antioxidant and multivitamin medications for 6 - 12 weeks an ENT examination. Steroids may be an option if the injury is recent. 3. MRI of the brain may be necessary to see if there is any other cause for auditory nerve injury 4. Otoendoscopy and nasal endoscopy to evaluate for ET dysfunction and initiate appropriate management with antibiotics, mucolytics, nasal decongestant sprays etc. It is imperative that your husband avoids any noise exposure for at least 3 weeks and uses ear plugs or muffs in noisy environments. Hope this helps. Do let me know if you have any other questions.