Has gear or a recording ever made your ears hot?

I get the Hot Ear sensation every time I hear something that bests

my system and costs less than I paid. 

Sometimes this syndrome is referred to as "Red Ass".

Hi

the Tensor Tympani muscle is in the middle ear

not the inner ear. It has a latency of about 40 Msec. The stapidius muscle which is also in the middle ear is much faster and has a latency of about 10 msec and a threshold of about 85dBSPL. The stapedius muscle will activate at 85 and saturate at about 120 dBSPL and at frequencies below 1000Hz.

This is related, but not a joke.

In the mid-seventies I saw Black Sabbath live, sans ear protection, and the first few songs sounded great.

Then, as it became clear the volume was REALLY loud, I noticed my ear canal was actually slick with what I presume was earwax!

I immediately stuffed my ears with tissue shreds and, as usual, had some ringing the next day but it went away.

Never happened before or since.