Sony Xperia ion - external speaker/loudspeaker stopped working!

[Xperia ion]

I have had my ion for barely a month and already the external speaker crapped out on me! I was playing music and all of a sudden, I heard what sounded like a fuzzy, crackling sound coming from the speaker and within about 5 seconds, the music faded away and the crackling got louder for a second or two, and then-----no sound. And now it will not play any sounds. The earpiece and headphone jack work, but the loudspeaker will not. So it sucks because now I can't tell when i receive a text or a phone call, I have to keep checking. Does aaaaanybody else have this problem?

Also it happened after I upgraded to ICS only 1 day ago, I think that may have something to do with it... idk. I haven't gotten water or anything else in the speaker. HELP!

 

[woodslink]

If it slowly went out, it sounds like a hardware issue, but give SoundAbout a shot in the market.