Great post. When I was in college in the '70s, and had a convenient, and free, health center, I went every semester to get my ears rinsed clean (my audiophilia started in high school, actually). The days afterward were always wonderful; everything was clearer, fresher, more immediate—and not just music. It often amazes me that so much attention is paid on this site to marginal improvements in sound quality that may or may not be obtained by changing power cords or interconnects or whatever, when so little is paid to room acoustics and basic ear health.
As for whether or not tinnitus is an "ear problem," from what I've read it is not well understood (the main reason there isn't yet an accepted treatment) but that it is believed to be largely a cognitive (brain) issue. After all, hearing may start at the ear, and may subjectively be localized at the ear, but it really happens in the mind, in consciousness. The same is true of sight. Many older people (my mother is my personal example) believe they need new glasses when the real problem is cognitive. Although my mother complained about not being able to read the newspaper, she could read her watch face without any trouble at all, even though the hands were tiny. What she blamed on her eyes was really a problem with her mind, as her subsequent mental decline made all to obvious.
