I have a pair of "Sennheiser CX 300" earphones and they have served me well for the past 4 months or so; playing loud crystal clear sounds (as well as blocking out background noise). For some reason earlier today, i was playing a tune and i thought that my right earphone sounded slightly louder than the left. I just assumed that the tune i was playing had been badly mastered and was panned more to the right, but when i played a few other tunes and the problem persisted, i began to worry that the problem was with my headphones.

I did an ABX test on my speakers (basically swapped them around a few times so i didn't know which was left or right) then played some mono tones i generated on my computer. Each time i could clearly detect which was the left earphone (the quieter one). I wondered if it was a problem with my computer so i played some tunes through my mp3 player and my left earphone was still quieter, so i made a stereo tone on my pc and boosted the volume of the left channel several decibels. This balanced it out.



It doesn't seem as if it is broken, and i haven't mishandled them, i was literally just listening to tunes and all of a sudden one went quieter than the other. Maybe it is just a loose connection? Is there any way i could repair them, or does anyone have any ideas as to what the problem is, whether fixable or not?


Thanks.

You might try pulling the soft outer ear seal off the right side and see if something is blocking the sound openings, e.g. earwax, dust. Or is there some corrosion on the metal plug where the right side signal makes contact? If it's an issue internal to the buds, cord or plug it will probably be tough to diagnose/correct yourself. Can you return them for warranty service? They come with a 2-year warranty according to Sennheiser website.

Ok, I've been inspecting the headphones and I've found the problem and a cure(ish). The problem was earwax and other grime clogging up in the mesh (predictably). The way i have solved it is unfortunately not the nicest way, you have to very carefully peel back the wire mesh (i used a combination of a pointed knife and a needle), then simply scrape the dirt off that will be underneath it. Don't fully peel the wire mesh off though, as you will need to gently fold it back afterwards. Unfortunately it won't be as flat and neat as before, but it solved my problem.


Hopefully this fix will be useful to other people who have this problem.

I had the same problem with the same pair of earphones and found that it was a build up of wax and other debris. I find if you gently scrape the mesh of the earphone bi-weekly then they seem to work fine. It's kind of funny because my girlfriend put them in the wash with a pair of my jeans twice and they still worked.

EEEEEEEWWWWWWW. Big and clunky, my over the ear electrostatic headphones at least don't have _that_ problem.

G²