Strange earpiece sound issue

Thanks all for taking the time to read. I have a Verizon Galaxy Note 3, 4.4.2 NC2, Rooted with stock rom. The earpiece sound is playing however, and I know this sounds strange, the sounds is playing mostly opposite to the front side of the phone. It is much louder on the back side. It is as if the normal front firing side of a speaker has been reversed to fire sound in the opposite direction. The sound is neither garbled, nor distorted, it is however to low for me to hear properly from the front which has two effects, the 1st being that calls without headphones plugged in are useless, 2nd and vastly more important, is that I am unable to convince onlookers that I am not entirely retarded as they watch me hold the back side of the phone to my face while the shiny bright screen illuminates, and thereby alerts all in the vicinity to snap photos. Under normal circumstances I would be embarrassed, but 3-5 times a week a few good souls walk by and drop money near me or offer kinds words of encouragement like "Limitations only go so far son, you keep trying" or "You keep playing the hand your dealt, one day you will think the game was worth the while" or my personal favorite " Good job buddy, there are no disabilities, only people with other abilities"

Things have tried so far:

Factory reset - No help
Changed Rom - No help
Changed speaker module - No help

If anyone has any suggestions I would be most appreciative.