Why Does My Earbuds Sound Muffled

All are finding new techniques to get relaxed from the hectic stress.

The best relaxing method is hearing songs, playing games, watching videos etc.

In today’s tech world everybody is on a kind of “hunt” when searching for earbuds. 

Because earbuds help to provide the best quality sound with privacy. Now people suffer from muffled sound from the earbuds due to different reasons. 

Why Does My Earbuds Sound Muffled?

Overpowered or Blown Speakers

Voice coil and moving coil are the two main components in the earbuds. These components stand for a specific amount of power conception. If the components are subjected to a higher current, it will be at high risk to damage the earbuds. 

Listening to music at a higher volume for a long time also causes damage to the speakers. It will cause you to experience distorted sound.

Note: Try this earbuds test to check your speaker sound quality online.

Bluetooth Codec

It is one of the important features as it assists in good quality transmission. This is why they assist in matching the bluetooth earbuds sound quality to the wired ones. 

Your device has a default codec setting that can transmit lower quality sound; this results in the earbuds sound muffled. 

Moisture Damage

As the name indicates, the problem occurs when the earbuds get wet due to sweating or any other reason, it will affect the sound quality. Some of the popular brands claim that their earbuds are completely water resistant and waterproof. 

These words are misleading that all the components are fully protected from the moisture. The moisture from the earwax and sweat can be a common reason for the muffled sound of earbuds.

Accumulation Of Debris

Another possible reason for muffled sound is accumulation of dust particles over the earbuds.This may be due to use of earbuds without a proper and regular cleaning. 

Earbuds have a debris protection mechanism. It varies through the manufacturer. 

There is a rating method for protection against debris. It ranges from 0 to   6  the highest number gives the better protection.

Low Battery

One of the most common reasons for muffled sound of earbuds is their battery. Earbuds are wireless and connected to the device through bluetooth; they have an inbuilt battery to perform the functions. 

If the battery capacity of your earbuds is low due to the use for hours, it will lead to distorted sounds. .

How Do You Fix A Muffled Earbud?

Clean Earbuds

Material You Need To Clean Earbuds

• Soft and clean microfiber cloth
• Cotton swabs
• Isopropyl alcohol;( 70% concentration)
• Small brush(e.g. toothbrush)
• Small blower.

First clean your hand. Take out the earbuds from the charging case and clean the inside surface of the charging case with the help of the blower. 

Then take some Isopropyl alcohol;( 70% concentration) sock the microfiber cloth, and wipe the outer surface of the case. 

Now take out the tips of your earbuds and clear the other part with microfiber cloth and Isopropyl alcohol. Repeat the same procedure on the tip of the earbuds as well. 

Then sock the cotton swab with Isopropyl alcohol and penetrate it into the inner part of the earbuds tip and clean it properly. 

Let it get dry properly and after that refix the ear bud tip to the earbuds. Try to do this atleast once a week.

Note:  Be careful while using the Isopropyl alcohol, it should be sure that the isopropyl alcohol is just 70% concentrated. Otherwise it will spoil your earbuds and the charging care too. Instead of the blower, you can use a soft small brush also.

Fix Moisture Damage

Using Uncooked Rice

There is no specific and proper solution for this. Because all the earbuds are designed differently and the reason for the muffled sound may be different and also the extent of the damage may be different.

Sometimes the rumours will work, uncooked rice is a better way to fix water damaged buds. Rice has the capacity to absorb moisture and draw out excess water from the interior components. 

First powering the earbuds down completely, drop them in a large container of rice and let them sit there for at least 24 to 48 hours. Then try powering them on and check if that fixed the issue. 

Dry Them Naturally 

This is an easy method for earbuds that are exposed to the plain tap water. Just keep it aside safely and allow them to dry out naturally. It will take one to three days. After that with a soft cloth just clean the outer surface. 

Try Distilled Water 

Distilled water, also known as deionized water, can actually help save your water damaged earbuds, particularly if they went through wash or fell in the ocean. 

Sock your earbuds in distilled water can remove any contaminants, chemicals and anything else rooting around the components. Now you can go for the rice method or let them get dry naturally. 

Fix Faulty Connection

Update Driver 

Faulty connection caused when your driver is not updated can be solved by the below steps.

1. Press Windows Key +R.
2. Type Device Manager and click Ok.Will open device manager.
3. In Device Manager, expand the sound,video and game controllers category.
4. From the menu shown, right click on your head phone and select the option update drive.
5. Select search automatically for drivers.
6. Device manager will download and install the compatible drivers for the headphone

After the installation, you can connect your earbuds with the computer and check for the sound clarity

Usually a professional program allows you to update the drives of your computer hardware automatically. No need to go through all the drives individually. For this, Driver Easy helps you properly. 

1. Download and install the app.
2. Launch the software and wait for the app to detect all incompatible drivers.      
3. Will list you all outdated drivers and select ones to update.
4. Click on update and install.
5. Restart PC to ensure applied changes.

Reset Bluetooth Connection 

You’ll need to try a few things to solve the Bluetooth connection of earbuds. For driver upgrades, check for some earbuds software that need to be updated. 

This can be possible from websites or applications. Reset your bluetooth connection in some causes, bluetooth earbuds have connection issues when trying  to connect to each other. 

Clear the memory on your earbuds using the reset procedure, then try connecting again. Turn on Bluetooth on your smartphone, laptop, or tablet. 

Try briefly disabling Bluetooth for fifteen seconds. After that, restart it and reconnect.

How to Fix Muffled Earbuds Sound When Connected to Windows PC?

If you face a muffled sound issue while connected with PC, please follow the below steps. 

Review the computer audio enhancement settings In windows, we have the facility to adjust the sound of our computer using audio enhancement by default. 

Audio enhancements like surround sound and equaliser, can cause destructions because they alter how loud the audio is and the intensity of the frequencies.This is why they may not work with all devices. 

Steps For Disabling Unwanted Audio Enhancements 

1. Right click the speaker icon in your taskbar and select ‘open sound setting’
2. Select device properties
3. Select the enhancement tab and disable the sound effects.

Check If There Is Any Issues With The Audio Driver

If audio drives on your computer are out of date, you may be missing out on important compatibility patches and bug fixes. 

1. Right click on the Start Button and from the list click on settings.
2. From the displayed options, select update and security.
3. Click on check for update here windows will check that any updates are pending.  

Set The Audio To 24 Bit Format

Check the audio drivers compactability and ensure that they support 24 bit depth to change the settings.

1. Right click on the speaker icon on the taskbar and select the open sound setting. 
2. From the options, click on device properties. 
3. Click on additional device properties.
4. A new window appears, in that click on the advanced tab from that select 24 bit from the drop down menu.

Run The Troubleshooter

If you still haven’t fixed the problem, you can go for a windows troubleshooter for audio to identify and remove any problems with your sound.

1. Right click the start button, from the options select settings menu.  
2. Click on update and security.
3. In the left panel, click on troubleshoot. 
4. Select playing audio, click on  run the troubleshooter and follow the instructions.

How to Fix Muffled Earbud Sound When Connected to Mac?

Here also you may find that your earbuds work fine on all devices aside from Macbook. In this kind of situation, these tips will help you .

Ensure It Is Connected Correctly

The earbuds need to be connected well to your mac through bluetooth for you to experience super quality sound. 

1. Put your earbuds into bluetooth pairing mode.
2. In your Mac, there will be an apple menu, click on that, then from the options select system preferences. 
3. Click on bluetooth and if it is disabled, click to enable it.
4. Now you will see your earbuds appear in the device section. Click on pair. Then your devices will pair each other. 

Check And Prevent Apps From Using Your Microphones

In some cases, Mac may use the AACaudio codec with the audio device it is connected to. Bluetooth always prefers the low quality codecs like SBC OR SCO. This happens because Mac assumes that headphones built in mic may apply somewhere else. 

 To check and change this:

1. Go to the apple menu and select system preferences.
2. Select security and privacy. 
3. Check that, are there any other applications using the microphone, if so, cancel them.

Use  Tooth Fairy

Here, this will help you to switch between the Apple devices which use headphones. It also has a feature that helps to ensure that your Mac is using the correct and preferred AAC codec.

1. Click on tooth fairy. Once it opens, select the audio device. 
2. Click on advanced.
3.  Ensure that ‘improve sound quality by disabling audio input from the device’ is enabled. 

FAQs

Why Do My Earbuds Sound Low Quality?

If your earbuds sound low in quality means, the audio setting on your service may not be properly configured. Sometimes the volume of your device may be set very low. Otherwise your earbuds have an equaliser setting, if it is not optimised, it can be a reason for the muffled sound of the earbud.

Why Do My Earphones Sound Like They Are Underwater?

Because of many reasons, this will usually happen if the earbuds equalisers are not well set. If the earbuds are damaged due to  moisture, or it’s having a dirt accumulation.  

How Do You Tell If Your Headphones Are Leaking?

Sound leaking means the sound effect of your music is spreading outside the surrounding area. If others can hear your music, it disturbs others’ silence and peace. Also it destroys your sense of privacy.

Conclusion 

Experiencing muffled sound from your earbuds seems embarrassing. 

You are in an official conversation with your colleague through a call. you are using your earbuds for convenience. 

During the conversation you experience the muffled sound. Here there is a chance of losing the important information due to the muffled sound. 

Now you find why your earbuds have a muffled sound and how to fix it. 

Fixing the problem is not at all a difficult task, but the problems we discussed can easily be avoided by being cautious and doing proper maintenance. 

So be careful while handling the earbuds.