Be Careful with In-Ear Headphones (eg Shure e4c, Etymotic ER-6)
they may cause better perceive tinnitus , , decreased hearing. had on , off high-pitched ringing in ear week , half, crescendoed yesterday 5th straight day of ringing , forced visit doctor. turns out had tic-tac box's worth of wax plugging canal. flushed canal saline solution , improvement dramatic. subjective measurement hearing improved three-fold, , following initial cleaning session (1 of 3) voice sounded if had been turned 11. cause? doctor nor sure, believed headphones(shure e3c). makes sense. qtips are not used clean ears because head shoves wax deeper canal. little cushions on headphones caused build-up via similar mechanism. shoving phones ear, shoved wax build-up (caused phones) deeper canal, after time led complete blockage. of course not problem everybody, if using them or considering buying them suggest keep ears cleaned. thanks warning! i've been wearing iems...