Ipad Air 2 volume issues

Hi people,

I upgraded from an Ipad 1st generation (64GB wifi) to an Ipad Air 2 (64GB wifi) in the middle of January. For the first month or so I had no issues with any aspect of the tablet, and it really lived up to my expectations. Ironically I don't really take my tablet out of the house; opting to use it for media consumption at home. As such there have been no cases yet where it has been exposed to vibrations, bumps or scratches, it is still in the same condition as it was when I first opened its box. About half way through February I notcied something very odd. I started watching a Youtube video with my Apple Earpods plugged into the device. Usually when it's on 50% volume it's really loud but this time it was fairly quiet. I pulled up the volume bar to adjust slightly and suddenely it came back to its normal loud volume. This problem persisted, so I did a little experiment. I went on a Youtube video and as predicted it was abnormally low even though it was over 50% volume. Then I decreased the volume to about 50% and it actually played louder than before, which confirmed my prediction that this wasn't just me hearing things but infact it was genuinely quieter. Just to clarify this problem didn't only occur on Youtube, it also was present on the native Music app and Netflix which leads me to believe its the Ipads issue not the apps. Also I have been through 2 IOS updates since I first recieved my Ipad and it still appears to be persisting. I've looked online and this seems to be a fairly unique issue. Any suggestions as to what I should do, I would be extremely thankful for.

from, Fat Koala

P.S just to make it clear this issue only occured when I was using my headphones, and yes I have tried multiple headphones and earbuds, so it definitely isn't anything wrong in that regard.