Are Plug in Earbuds prone to sound quality degradation over time?

[maverick28]

I bought my iPhone SE more than 1.5 ago and it included the EarPods. It sounded great but with time passing the sound became lower than it used to, it lost bass depth and as of this day the overall impression is like listening to MP3, although all my recordings are digitized vinyl (24 bit 96kHz and more) which tend to produce an audibly deeper sound range which has shrunk by now. I listen to music at max volume. It started to crackle in the treble area as the volume goes up as if clipped on high frequencies. How's your experience?

NB. It's not about ear wax. I cleaned it with a toothbrush regularly.