@asvjerry My cat found my in ear assistance devices carelessly left on my desk, so clearly every thing that then happened was my fault. One of the devices must still be on the feline mothership for study (or, it might have been in the cat box...) and the other miraculously appeared on the living room floor months later. Smudge has not laid a paw on any speaker grills, so she can stay. for now pending further review
Thank you, @cleeds for showing me the dynamic range database. Not something I would have stumbled on by myself, it was very interesting... Is there a similar database for compression? ;)
my mamma said, "volume is as volume does"