I've had my er-4p for a few days now and my left ear has started to really hurt and i'm a bit worried it's an ear infection caused from sticking the er-4 in and out of my ear.

Has any one else had a problem like this or simlar to it ?

yes, i had this problem once, but it was definately my own stupid fault. after a day of not washing my hands, i ate a really messy sandwich, and then proceeded to attempt to make ety plugs out of some earplugs i had lying about. this involved much handling of said earplugs, and insertion/removal/reinsertion. that night i started getting a terrible ringing in one of my ears, and when i went to the health center the next day, sure enough, it was an ear infection. you should get it checked out.
its better to catch them earlier rather than later, or else you'll be in considerable discomfort for a while after you start taking antibiotics.

oh, btw, are you feeling dizzy, disoriented?

LOL at your sig Chefgru. I've been trying to leave head-fi for over a year now. Can I joint Team Trying to leave head-fi? I think I am going to put Team Trying to leave head-fi in my sig. I removed my avatar, erased my sig, erased my profile, with the hope I would have less emotional investement in the place and just leave. I figure it beats a lot of other internet addictions, though, but it'd be nice to kick the habit, or at least moderate it. Any suggestions?

As to your ETY/ear problem, my intuition is that you should leave it alone for a while and see if it heals, but if there's any worsening, rather than a quick healing, see a doctor.

Okay, I've got the house to myself... time to go listen to some more music...



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XXhalberstramXX: Thanks for the advice. No dizzyness or any thing but i'm pretty sure it's infection since I use to get them alot when I was a kid. How do you care for your er-4 ? I've been cleaning the tri pad before I use it (just water though), because i'm worried leaving them out on the desk or something is going to going to have them collect alot of germs ect.


Steve999 : LOL sure you can join team Trying to leave head-fi. In hopes to leave head-fi I just spend alot of dough on stuff and not all of it's here yet.. hopefully when it all does get here I can leave head-fi for good .

Go to the drug store and get an ear washing device, looks like a big bulb. Use warm water in the shower to rinse out ear, carefully.

Also get ear wax remover, with active ingredient carbomide peroxide or something like that. I lay in bed on one side of my head, put in the drops, and leave them in there for about 15 mins or so, then cover the ear with tissue and get up and drain the ear. Do that for a few days, then flush the ear.

That will remove wax, and the solution does have some disinfectent properties.

Do all this at your own risk.

You might remove the earplugs of the etys and soak them in hydrogen peroxide and rinse them off well too.

I don't think that using canal phones could normally cause an ear infection. If you already have an infection, the phones could cause pain.

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I normally wash the tri-flanged tips with regular liquid hand soap. A few seconds of gentle rubbing the soapy mixture with the tips in my hands and a thorough rinse using warm water does the trick well enough. I leave the tips out on my (clean) dresser top to dry.

Never had a ear infection. But I suspect part of this is due to my nearly anal compulsion to keep my ears clean.

Yes I had the same problem twice! One inner ear became very tender and the pain travelled down to my cheek. I stopped using the Etys for a couple of days, the pain subsided, and tried again.

The same thing happened a month later and I again didn't use them for a couple of days and it went away. This has not happened since ( two months)

I put it down to the ear suspecting the Ety was a foreign object (which of course it is) and sending in the old white corpusles to sort it out. I guess the cleanliness precautions mentioned above would be worthwhile though.

I had something possibly similar happen with the er-6's. When I first got them they caused a slight "pain" in my right ear... I actually went to my doctor to see if everything was ok, he said that my ears were just not used to having something pressing on them for extended periods of time... something similar to wearing glasses at first, your skin gets a little irritated.

The difference in the ear is the fact that it's the skin in your ear canal. He said they were a little red, but nothing in the inner ear.

Not sure if it is the same thing, you MIGHT have an ear infection. A discomfort in your ear could be either thing... if you're feeling sort of queezy or dizzy it is probably an ear infection. If it's just a discomfort, particularly but not only when you put in the plugs then just give your skin some time off and try again.

You'll get used to them... I can wear mine for hours without any discomfort at all.

I am a Pharmacist and would not advise putting any drops into an aching ear until somebody has looked inside the ear to determine the cause. Carbamide peroxide is an irritant and although good at dispersing wax, will not do any good to an inflamed canal.

Ok well I went to the doctor and lucky me I have an ear infection .
I'm 99.9% sure it was casued by either the er-4p/s or e5c which I just got (prob both) 3 days ago. Interesting.. well I just got my ipod mini and I guess i'm going to be sending the er-4p/s and e5c back to where I got them from.

yeah, as i said, the ear infection was totally my fault, not the ety's. since then, i've been washing the tri-flanges with soap and water every day that i listen to them. i've been using the foamies (with the 2/3 length mod) lateley, though and i wish i could clean them somehow, as i'm too much of a cheap person to buy new ones.

Is it just me or does this thread beginning to sound like a poor episode of Frasier?

just clean your ears. easiest way is to shower every day


but seriously, quick and painless way to clean ur ears: get some soap lather and rub your fingers into the inside of your ears, then tilt your head sideways so that the water is coming down into your ear canal. Let it rinse out for like 10 seconds and wipe of the remaing residue with your finger. repeat for other ear.

then a quick swab of the ear canal with a qtip. I don't get why people are so afraid of putting qtips in their ears. it's not like you have to jab them into your ears with all your force. by the way my hearing is very good. actually, it's amazing.

if you do this, you won't have to pull out the tri-flange and wash it every friggin time (such a hassle.) and your ears won't be dripping with nasty ear juice. oh yea one more thing, change the filters? maybe... after your dead. actually the best part is the tri-flange won't turn that nasty yellow color. I've seen people with their ER-4 and the tri-flange is yellow. that is gross.

i quit on giving up sleep. time for bed.

Careful with q-tips, guys. They even say on the q-tip boxes not to insert them into the ear canal. Also they may push earwax deeper in, so your hearing will sound more muffled than before you inserted the q-tip. Eventually the wax will be packed in tight and be difficult to remove. You may even need to go to a doctor to remove it.

Also, remember that earwax is a natural secretion from your ears. It's slightly acidic (or basic, not sure), too, so that it helps kill bacteria.