The bass disappeared mid-walk, and now one earbud sounds like you’re listening to music through a tin can. A familiar situation. This is one of the most common problems with earbuds—regardless of brand—and luckily the cause is usually more mundane than you’d think.
Why did the bass disappear?
An earbud’s sound channel is small. Really small. It only takes some earwax, moisture, or dust to build up over the sound port, and the bass frequencies are the first to vanish. Physics is unforgiving: low frequencies need air pressure to move freely, and even a small blockage is enough to kill the bass.
In practice this means the driver isn’t necessarily broken. The sound port is just clogged.
Another possible reason is that the silicone tip is seated poorly and leaking air. Without a proper seal in the ear canal, bass simply won’t be produced. It’s like trying to play a bass guitar without the bottom of the body.
How to fix it
- Remove the silicone tip – gently twist it off the earbud
- Check the sound port – look at the small mesh filter at the end of the bud. Do you see wax or dirt on it?
- Clean the mesh – use a dry, soft toothbrush or a toothpick. Gently. Do not push debris deeper.
- Also clean the silicone tip – warm water and mild soap. Let it dry completely before putting it back.
- Try a different tip – temporarily swap the tip from the other earbud onto the problematic one. If the bass returns, the old tip was either dirty or loosened.
- Do a reset – place both earbuds in the case, connect the charging cable, and hold the touch panel down for 5 seconds. The blue light will blink once. This resets the earbuds.
- Remove the pairing from your phone – go to Bluetooth settings, forget NL21, and pair again.
Also try playing the same track and swapping the earbud to the other ear. If the problem follows the earbud and not the ear, the fault is in the earbud. If the problem follows the ear, the cause may be the tip’s seal—or you just have more earwax than usual. No worries, that’s natural.
If it doesn’t help
If cleaning and a reset don’t bring back the bass, the driver may have been damaged. These things happen – electronics are electronics. Send us an email at info@valco.fi and include:
- Order number
- Photo of the earbud (close-up of the sound port)
- Short description of when and how the issue started
Our service team in Kajaani will sort it out. During the warranty period (24 months) the repair won’t cost you anything. We fix headphones, we don’t throw them away – that’s how we fund that Death Star.
And if it feels like this is already the second time with the same issue: tell us that, too. We’ll figure it out.
