I’m a active swimmer and once in a while I need to clear my ear canal out of excessive wax… Last time was 4 years ago, long before I went waist down with my hi-fi…
So this week I’m doing it again… holy crap, my system sounded better… unintended but welcomed consequence… hahaha.
Just want to share, consult your ear doctor before trying.
Ear wax contains cortisol, meaning the body (ear canal) is resisting something! I swim about 3 - 4 km a week, but that does not put wax in my ear canal. I am either not swimming enough, or plain lucky!
This said, 60s are kicking in, and in a recent hearing test, the doctor said my hearing is below normal for high frequencies… I guess my next upgrade should be bright sounding speakers!
I had to start wearing hearing aids about 8 years ago. Hi frequency loss. Too many loud concerts and too much time around power saws. Best thing I ever did. Audition them the same way you’d audition audio gear. I tried 3 or 4 pairs before I found a pair I liked. One of them was so bad around music I though I’d have to give it up. Part of maintaining them is cleaning ear wax off the parts that reside in your ear and keeping my ears clear of excess ear wax. I use about 5 drops of peroxide for that weekly. Certainly is good advice to look at what does the hearing as much as what you’re listening to.
Thank you for sharing your experience and valuable advice David! A good insight and hope that I won’t stop listening to my records!
The presence of cortisol in earwax is, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. It’s the level of cortisol that matters. If it has none or too little, in all likelihood you have Addison’s disease. If you have high levels, that indicates there are issues in your body, such as high stress. As with so many things in life, it all in the balance of everything.
Thank you @tarheelneil for correcting me. Good to know 
I had to research it, as I didn’t know. But so many substances in the body are needed in tiny amounts, but too much of them is either indicative of problems, or causes problems. And as I keep pushing north of 70 y/o, I find myself more and more interested in learning these things.
Thank you again @tarheelneil
I wish you many more happy years in good health 
If I may ask, where did you land on the hearing aids? I have friends who swear by units made by web-based outfits like Eargo, and others who love the Costco ones made by Sonova/Phonak, and others who tell me the full-blown audiologist route is the only way to go.
If the volume level of our television is anything to go by, I suspect soon my wife and I both will be getting some to correct mild loss - mild enough to maybe consider leaving them out when listening to the stereo, though if I could find ones that didn’t degrade music, so much the better.
I happen to be lucky enough to have my niece as my audiologist. I trust her and I think she takes good care of me. My two cents is this, if you don’t buy your hearing aids from someone who can adjust the prescription to your specific needs, you’re probably over treating or under treating your problem. My hearing aids, both left and right, are adjusted to treat and amplify only my deficiencies on that ear. Everything else goes right by the holes in the piece in my ear and on to my ear drum. Hearing aids are expensive. You want a set that can be adjusted as your prescription changes. My hearing is checked annually and if adjustments are needed, they are made. Looking at the computer monitor my niece works from you think you’re looking at a graphic equalizer. This is very familiar stuff to all of us if you think about it. All of this is done in the digital realm. Gone are the days of big, bulky, analog hearing aids like my mom used to wear.
Something to ponder: do digital or analog hearing aids sound better? Wow! What a can of worms that could be. To my knowledge, none of them are analog anymore. Still, it’s fun to think about. Next thing you know I’ll have little tubes glowing next to my ears and a battery life of about 1 hour.
Plugged in to a P20 tubes will give you the ears of a 18 year-old. And if you put Stillpoints under your heels, you’d have amazing dynamic range 