Is it my ears or my earbuds?

I use the Apple "EarPods" that come with every iPhone and stuff, and recently I've encountered a problem with them. Every time I use them, I have to adjust the slider in my phone to raise the volume in the right and lower it in the left, and I can't tell if it's my ears or the earbuds. I wanna say it's me and go to an ENT but at the same time I use Skullcandy Hesh 2s to play along to music when I play the drums and I don't have this problem. The other thing is the earbuds are really loud when I take them out but get way quieter when I put them in. If you made it this far I'm sorry for the really long read.

Have you tried putting them in the "wrong" ear and if so does the problem change sides? If it does it's an earbud problem. If it's the same its an ear problem

Chances are, the SOCKET needs cleaning, since one side's connection is not fully working. Barely dampen a pipe cleaner with something like Windex - it shoudl be nearly DRY. Then thoroughly but gently wipe out that socket, like cleaning a baby's ear - and thoroughly clean the PLUG as well. When you are certain everything is DRY, re-insert the plug. As you listen to music, rotate the plug in the socket - and if you hear any changes, even scratching, then you know if is your equipment, not YOU. This is very, very common- I clean my devices fairly often ( processional career classical musician). It is also possible that one of the hair-thin internal wires has broken. But if you do not have other ear problems, then this might be the fault of your equipment - and everybody blames the headphones, when it is most often the SOCKET.

Test the earbuds with other audio device -if they work there, then chances are that the audio jack of your device is damaged. Then again, Apple is notoriously known for issues like this anyway!

If you have the issue with one set of earbuds and not another, it's not you.