I'm going to work on this myself in the next few days when my part arrives. I'll have more to share soon
My phone fell yesterday when I was getting out of my friend's SUV. Landed right on its back and the sim card tray popped out. Since then, my sound volume (which was loud actually) on the earpiece dropped down to half especially with the sound turned all the way up during conversations. This was my 2nd iphone so I'm aware what the standard low volume iphone earpiece sounds like. This 2nd one I had was one of the unique ones with a great antenna/reception and a great earpiece volume with nice bass/treble balance similar to my motorola Q9H.
Needless to say...I'm still pissed at myself for not only using my phone naked without a case, but also being so careless in that moment when I usually baby my device.
What end up happening to your iphone? Mike, why are you replacing your earpiece?