The audio engineering biz is very subjective. What sounds one way to you may not to others. The challenge is to mix in many ways and with varied equipment. Ultimately, you're the engineer, you're the artist. It's up to you. No right way, no wrong way, just our own way. My philosophy anyway.
You might still have a hardware fault with something, tho it sounds like things do work. Troubleshoot a bit.
Test different mics, cables, headphones, speakers, etc...
In testing, the only way to know a device or function is faulty is to compare it with other same or similar.
If one device has same issue with any setup, suspect device.
