What's Wrong With My Earphones?

[Sir Topham Hatt]

So, I have a pair similar to these:

However over the last years, I have owned around 5 pairs. I don't listen to music all the time, in fact, perhaps only use them two or three times a month, if that. But all headphones like the above all suffer from the same issue, where one side the volume is really low.

I used to think this was just because my ears were too waxy or they were a little sweaty, kind of anything to suggest that the ear bud wasn't quite correct. However, swapping the ear phone with the other, it was clear there is something wrong with the hardware, not the ear.

Sound still comes out but it's at such a low volume I am listening to half stereo.

What can it be? I spent maybe about ?20 on them, so nothing compared with the ?100's headphones sell for these days but they are good and cancel out pretty much all surrounding noise.

Is this an issue with the majority of this type of headphone or have I just been making bad purchases?

Would anyone recommend any others like this that are no more than ?20 odd?

Thanks

[saxondale.]

It could be moisture getting into the headphone. Do you use them at the gym or anything? When i first got my Westone 4s (these are high end stuff), the volume on the left earphone completely dropped one day. I still don't know why, but i was told it could be moisture (i go to the gym a lot), so i left them for a few days and it went back to normal!

[Trueblue711]

Could it be the device you're playing your music on? Also, have you been purchasing the same brand/model of headphones?

[Sir Topham Hatt]

I don't use them at the gym, usually just walking to work in dry weather.

Erm, I have a couple of Sony versions, now (by the logo) it looks like I have a creative version, but all of them using a Creative Zen V:

[FiB3R]

If it's not your ears, and you've tried multiple pairs of earphones from different manufactures, that only leaves the player, right?

Either it's a hardware fault with the player, or possibly some setting has been changed.

[jakem1]

Have you tried testing them with something else like a laptop to work out whether it' the headphones or the device?

[cork1958]

True stereo will always have one side some what lower than the other.

If you've tried several pairs, it's obviously the player, or you're just imagining one side is that low, or your hearing is worse in one ear over the other.

[+DKAngel Subscriber²]

could be trhe jack its plugged into, ive got a ocuple of sets that sound softer when plugged into my pc's front jacks where as some other pairs are fine