I'm not sure about the sound being distorted, but he must feel more irritable when his ears are hurting. We had a dog who used to get a lot of ear infections and you could tell he just wasn't happy in himself when his ears were playing up. He was irritable with the other dog and the cat and just looked down in the dumps.
I think his poorly ears would definitely affect his behaviour as his head must just hurt and it might affect his balance (it does in humans). Poor boy.