EAR WRAPS IN WINTERMUTE - MYSTERY LAKE
I do not know if luck or randomness is a factor, but with the locations I found TWO of these in EP 2. of Wintermute. BOTH in Mystery Lake, it did not seem random, it seemed deliberate. Perhaps I could have found a different equally "rare" item in it's place, I do not know. I had a similar circumstance with finding the ski boots in Ep 1.
I'll start with the Ski Boots simply because it's easy. When you finally get a prybar from behind grey mother's house, backtrack all the way back to the first bridge with all the cars on it and pry open the trunks there. I found the ski boots in a locked car trunk at the far end of the bridge.
My first ear wrap that I think you can get right away in Ep 2. was found by going to the lake in mystery lake, down by the lake cabins, where there is a dead body and the deer roam, take the snow path at the end of the lake there and follow it south. I believe there was a climbing rope hanging down off the cliffside already there. I scaled the steep hill instead to save energy. Once getting up there, there is a large kind of just open area, lots of sticks and no wildlife. There is a cave at the end. Inside the cave is where I found the ear wrap. Very secluded, not a map location, and nothing ever gives you a reason to go there other than exploration on your own.
The second ear wrap I did not find until the end of the game almost to the end of carter dam. After you've taken the climbing rope (or bypassing it like I did by jumping off the ledge prior to the rope and getting to the same place the rope leads, thereby allowing me to take my stuff overburdened) you eventually end up in a room where there is a backpack next to machinery but electric cables blocking you from getting to it without dying. Ignore it and go down to the next area, there is an electric switch on the other side of some electric wires, you continue forward and ignore those until after you pass over the metal bridge thing. You turn left instead of continuing forward and there is a little makeshift bridge leading back the direction you came but on the other side of the wires. Flip the switch and shut the wires off, then instead of going forward through the dam, backtrack back up the stairs to where the backpack was. The wires are off. I found the second ear wrap in that backpack.
I hope this helps someone and that they are there for you too. If not, it'll probably still be another rare piece of gear, if my alternate theory is correct.