AirPods - Wax On, Wax Off

I wasn't sure whether my hearing was on the blink, or whether my AirPods gen. 2 were starting to fail

I was finding that all of podcasts, including @podfeet dulcet tones were mainly coming out in the right-hand AirPod, with way less volume in the left-hand AirPod

I thought I'd cleaned them both thoroughly ....

Thankfully, the problem was (alas) earwax, and was resolved by an even more robust clean, specifically using the pointy end of a plastic tooth pick to gently unblock the grills AND the teeny-tiny little hole

The thing that made the most difference was the little hole ....

One thing that helped diagnose the issue was the ability to change the balance on my iPhone, via Settings -> Accessibility -> Audio/Visual

When I posted this to a couple of Slack teams, one of my network said : -

Interesting diagnostic technique for what turned out to be a physical problem. I think that hole is how it listens for ambient noise, even though these aren't the noise cancelling ones. If I recall correctly it's for your voice going to your caller.

which ties up with my own findings.

Someone else said much the same: -

This is a common problem with hearing aids.  I had to pay $350 to replace mine due to that problem among other issues last week. (edited) 

So now I know ......