Interesting that they give you earache. They do exactly the same with me. My left ear feels blocked and I've had tinnitus in both ears for a few weeks. I thought it was an ear infection, even went on antibiotics for it.
I bought a SPL meter to check i'm not playing too loud, and don't even reach 70 peak db usually, so it's not that. It got to the stage that I couldn't listen to music much for the last week. Last night I tried using my IEMs, Sony MDR-EX1000s. After a couple of hours listening my left ear felt less blocked and the tinnitus had almost gone. Tonight I used the Z1Rs again and after 20 minutes or so my left ear started hurting. EX100s back in and fine.
Any body else come across this?
Yes, I have the same problem with my left ear. IEMs are fine, but any type of closed headphone causes problems, some worse than others.
Some suggestions I have are to try to get as much pressure off the surrounding area of your ear (loosening the headband helps). At least try to make the clamp pressure as equalized as possible around your entire ear so it's not focused in one spot.
And make sure you don't have any impacted wax or something like that. I have allergies and have been trying some decongestants like Zyrtec-D which seems to help sometimes. It might just be the winter that's worse for it too, now that the weather is warming up and there's more humidity in the air, it's not quite as bad for me lately.