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Got one earbud wire ripped out accidentally, but luckily the wire itself was still fine, just had to open the earbud and solder wires again. My earphones are Atomic Floyd super darts, high quality (as far as I can judge :-) ), so I could unscrew it to fix properly, or at least I tried. Sound is back, but the earbud I fixed has a lower volume than the other one (as well as decreased sound quality). Tried several time, to soldering again several times, swapping wires (in case of), but still the same. Don’t think it would be a ear wax problem (even if I did clean the earbud) as they were working perfectly right before I ripped out the wire, and didn’t use them since {~4-5 months). Any idea why this would happen? Bad soldering? Bad/Wrong tin (Used with 40% lead)? Thanks for your help. (Sorry if I misused some terms, not English native and not used to electrical engineering language :-) )

Did you remove the acrylic insulation of the wire? You can remove this by heating the wire with solder for a while or burn it with a lighter. Else it is probably a shortage, check if there is not a single little wire touching the other wire. Cut if off, or resolder. I don’t have any more idea’s… Maybe you can send a photo of your solder work.

It may happen. If you checked previous suggestions

  • checking your own ears (switching earbuds left<>right)
  • checking if your media player/sound card have sound balanced (same level for left and right ear)
  • checking if its not clogged It may very well be just plain simple failure of hardware. I had before earbuds in which one side started to sound lower, after i checked all these things it was really just failure of hardware, I fought it by adjusting balance (put it more to side which got lower volume and increase overall volume) But it kept decreasing until it was so low that having balance completely to that side had no effect. It may be same case. If you check all above and earbuds are still under warranty, return it to store. If no maybe start looking for replacement (meanwhile you can adjust it as I did by switching balance toward failing side).