When did you start blowing out your ears? Was it at a concert by the Grateful Dead, Parliament Funkadelic, or the Ramones? You can peg many of us by which era of live music left our heads ringing. A funny thought for sure, but the damage is all too real and serious. If you are trying to figure out how to hear better, there’s a good chance you can blame the damage on your youth.

Quick health lesson: Normal wear-and-tear, like music cranked up to 11, damages the tiny hairs of the inner ear over time, and is the most common cause of hearing loss. It’s why you may now struggle to hear conversation in crowded restaurants, or be unable to discern what the heck is being said while talking on your cellphone.

How to Hear Better On Your Smartphone

Fortunately, there’s an amazing life-hack for the latter—an app called SonicCloud ($9.99 a month). Cofounder Larry Guterman has severe hearing loss, and spent years creating this cutting-edge solution. Once downloaded, the app takes you through an honestly fun tutorial that “trains” it to recognize exactly what frequencies you have trouble hearing. For most people, the high frequencies (like many women’s and children’s voices) are the first to go; in normal conversation, this can leave gaps where certain letters use to be, like S, SH, F, TH – all the spitty and lispy sounds which are pretty vital.

Once the app understands exactly where your hearing gaps are, it optimizes your cellphone chats, bumping up those parts of each caller’s speech that you need sweetened. It’s a terrific tool to make your conversations with grandkids, low-talkers, and any chipmunks in your life totally stress-free.

So figuring out how to hear better on your smartphone is now a problem of days past.