Alright, I'll have to give it a shot the next time I'm in a city with an Apple store. Nearest one is almost 5 hours from me. Or I could ship it. I'm still worried about them falling apart, as Apple's track record with cords has been the most pathetic thing I've ever seen.

I was more talking about wax buildup within my ear canal. I normally go and get it vacuumed out every six months, as it takes about 5 months for me to build a 100% blockage. I'm at 7 months right now, and my appointment is in two weeks, so maybe that'll fix it. I'm just surprised that it sounded so much worse all of a sudden.

You might be right though, it might be time to look for alternative IEMs. I checked out Crinacle's list for both IEMs and headphones, and they get surprisingly expensive. I didn't even know some of those price points existed. I did see some Etymotics for about $110 that I think would be pretty good, and they would still fit under the giant ear protection headphones I wear. Thanks for the tips!