Introduction: Among the elderly, it is common to see a constant complaint of not understanding the speech in noisy or reverberant environment. This difficulty of communication leads to a process of underevaluation and low-self-steem, and the preservation of auditory capability is vital. Many authors claim that sensorineural hearing loss is the main factor of the understanding difficulty of this age group, however, many other factors of interference are verified. The conventional tests of tonal and vocal audiometry provide data about the hearing loss without describing how such loss affects the patient’s life and his everyday communication. Objective: To assess elderly people by SSW Test for the establishment of normality limits at the assessed conditions and compare them with the standards of the USA population in the same age range. Method: 100 elderly people aged from 60 through 79 have been assessed. Among them, 50 individuals showed sensorineural hearing loss characteristic of presbycusis (study group) and 50 had tonal thresholds within normal limits (control group). Before applying SSW test, these people underwent anamnesis and audiologic and otorhinolaryngologic evaluation. Results: We have noticed an accentuated difference between normality standard to the American population and the one found in the Brazilian population of the same age range. Conclusion: We believe that the use of the normality standard to the American population is not viable in our population because it has proved to be too strict.