You may notice over time that your IPod earbuds get quieter and quieter. You are not necessarily going deaf, it may be the unpleasant buildup of ear wax inside the grill of the earbud itself. If you wear them while working outside in the summer or while working out this is even more likely to occur. I build a paver patio during the summer and this happened. At first I assumed that rubbing alchohol would take care of it but it did very little. Soaked generously into a cotton swab it seemed the best approach but had little effect. I trashed 4 sets of earbuds over time due to the inability to prevent this effect. Just by chance I tried Windex (Ammonia Free) on a cotton swab and noticed that it almost immediately discolored, something that did not happen with 91% isopropyl alchohol. I tried a few more swabs soaked with Windex on the earbuds, dried the earbuds off with dry swabs and paper towels and then tried them out. I got greater results with just 2 swabs than the entire time I tried alchohol.