Apple took the lead in canceling the 3.5mm audio interface on the iPhone 7 series smartphones released in 2016, and at the same time launched a new product line Apple AirPods series true wireless headphones. This solution that uses dual-channel transmission technology with charging bins quickly led the development of the industry, and many manufacturers followed suit one after another, opening the TWS era.
By March 2019, Apple AirPods 2 was released. The product uses the H1 chip and adds functions such as voice wake-up Siri and wireless charging. Less than a year later, AirPods Pro, the third-generation product of the AirPods series, was quietly launched on Apple’s official website on October 30, 2019. The appearance and configuration have been upgraded. The new active noise reduction function stirred up waves with one stone, leading TWS True wireless headphones have entered the era of more high-end active noise reduction.
Coming to 2020, Apple’s first headset was revealed from the middle of the year to the end of the year. This highly anticipated AirPods Max product was finally launched on the official website on December 8. 52audio conducted a preliminary unboxing experience for the first time. At the same time, it analyzed the product characteristics of AirPods Max based on the technological evolution of the headset. At the same time, this headset uses an innovative dual master chip to become a product design that is also worthy of attention.
Apple AirPods Max headset break through the design of current mainstream flagship products in appearance, reconstruct the head beam structure of the headset, use a stainless steel frame with canopy design; the configuration is equipped with Apple H1 chip, support active noise reduction, wear detection, adaptive Balanced sound effects and spatial audio functions, etc.
This article has a total of 250 high-definition pictures, 7883 word product design, structure, material analysis, detailed teardown of Apple first headset – AirPods Max, follow 52audio to see the true face of this product!
| 1. Apple AirPods Max unboxing
The packaging box is still Apple’s concise style, with only a 1:1 rendering of the headset on the front.
On the back, there is a rendering of Apple’s AirPods Pro placed in a smart headset case. In the lower right corner, there are Apple trademarks and CE certification, as well as recyclable and no discard signs.
The product name AirPods Max is printed on the side of the box.
Apple LOGO on the other side.
The label information on the back includes the product name: wireless headset (with earphone sleeve); model: A2096 made in China; input: 5V⎓1A; manufacturer: this product is authorized by an American company. And compatible device description and serial number barcode.
Items in the box The earphones are placed in the earphone sleeve, as well as the charging cable and the document box.
USB Type-C to Lightning charging cable.
Lightning interface.
USB Type-C interface.
The earphones are placed in the earphone sleeve, and the earphone sleeve is wrapped in a layer of translucent paper. Prevent damage during transportation.
The back of the earphone is also covered with a thick paper pad for protection.
Take out the earphones, the earphone cover is covered by a white paper mold.
Inside the paper mold.
On the front of the earphone, the earphone cover feels similar to that of the Apple mobile phone case introduced earlier.
The back of the headset.
The earphone sleeve is fixed by magnetic attraction.
The bottom of the earphone sleeve.
The inner velvet material of the earphone sleeve feels soft, and also plays a role of anti-slip and scratch. The imprinted information was designed by California Apple and assembled in China.
The internal connection structure of the earphone sleeve.
Through the test, it is found that the earphone sleeve is equipped with a magnetic element. After the earphone is placed in the leather sleeve, the bluetooth connection will be disconnected and enter the ultra-low power standby state.
The appearance of the headset, there is no LOGO or lettering on the back of the headset shell, but it supports custom lettering at the time of purchase.
The inside appearance of the earphone, the earmuffs are wrap-around.
The appearance of the bottom of the headset, the charging port is located on the right headset.
There are also multiple openings at the bottom of the headset, including microphones and bass reversal holes, which are introduced one by one.
Display of headset wearing status.
A look at the newly designed head beam structure of Apple AirPods Max.
The head beam uses a stainless steel frame with a tight fabric canopy. The outer soft material of the stainless steel frame is wrapped with a comfortable touch. The deep sinking of the woven net can effectively support and disperse the pressure of the headphone on the head.
The fabric canopy helps to distribute the weight, reduce the pressure on the head, and has strong air permeability.
The head beam telescopic sleeve rod has a strong sense of damping.
Maximum stretch length of telescopic sleeve rod.
Head beam and ear shell suspension system.
The suspension system can realize the left and right rotation of the earmuffs and the downward rotation to improve the wearing comfort.
52audio used the ChargerLAB POWER-Z KT002 portable power tester to perform a wired charging test on Apple’s AirPods Max noise reduction headphones, with an input power of about 2.26W.
52audio used the ChargerLAB POWER-Z KM001C portable power tester to perform a wired charging test on Apple’s AirPods Max noise reduction headphones. The charging power was about 2.28W.
Remove the magnetic earmuffs.
Inside the earmuffs, there is a square frame.
The woven pattern on the inside of the front of the earmuffs has an L/R logo on the dustproof woven net.
Oval openings are reserved on the inner side of the earmuffs that are not covered by the dust-proof net cover. The opening position corresponds to the optical sensor for wearing detection.
Compared with the overall depth of the earmuffs using coins, the earmuffs are deeper than other products.
Woven R logo.
Earmuffs plastic frame. A buffer pad is arranged at the junction with the cavity.
Using a magnet to test, there are iron blocks under the four corners of the cushion, which can be attracted by the magnet.
The frame of the earmuffs is also printed with information designed by Apple in California and assembled in China.
The cover of the sound hole inside the ear shell is fixed by four screws, and there is an L mark on the side of the cover.
The long strip noise reduction microphone on the top of the left ear has an opening, and the inside is covered by a metal mesh to prevent foreign objects from entering.
The noise reduction microphone on the other side of the top of the left ear has an opening, which is also covered by a metal dust-proof net.
The earphone pressure relief hole keeps air circulation in the cavity.
The oval microphone at the bottom has an opening, and the inside is covered by a metal dust-proof net for voice pickup.
Due to the metal body, there is also an antenna signal overflow slot at the bottom of the left ear.
The light sensor has a hole for wearing detection function.
The round sound hole is covered by a dust-proof net inside. The speaker unit can be seen inside.
The Torx screws to fix the cover are designed with CD texture.
A pin hole for removing the head beam.
The information printed on the side of the sound cavity cover is designed by California Apple and assembled in China. Model: A2096, EMC 3276 5V⎓1A; FCC ID: BCG-A2096; IC: 579C-A2096, etc.
On the other side, there are CE, EAC certification marks and no discard signs.
A magnetic attraction structure is arranged on the inner side of the cover plate to absorb the earmuffs.
The sound cavity cover on the right is the same as the left, and is printed with the R logo.
There are two noise-reduction microphone openings on the top, and the internal metal dust-proof net covers.
Noise reduction mode switch button, click to switch the noise reduction, noise reduction off, and ambient sound enhancement transparent mode in sequence.
The second microphone opening at the top.
Digital crown, adjust the volume, switch tracks, answer calls, and wake up the voice assistant through “hei, Siri” after a long press.
The side of the digital crown.
Right ear pressure relief hole.
The call microphone has an opening, and the internal metal dust-proof net covers.
Lightning charging interface, the right side is the charging indicator.
The right ear is also equipped with an optical sensor unit for wearing detection.
Use a card pin to insert the tiny round opening.
The head beam unit can be easily removed from the suspension system.
Disassemble the earphone and head beam.
Hanging structural head beam interface on the earmuffs.
Through the hole, you can see the pin structure, which is used to connect the internal circuit of the head beam.
The head beam suspension structure, the terminal line contact, is used to connect with the left earphone; a groove is provided under the interface, which is fixed with the earmuff pin structure.
The other side of the suspension structure is also provided with an oval slot for fixing. There are a total of 4 contacts on the front and back of the headphone beam. I love audio network used a multimeter to measure the conduction of the contacts on the left and right ends, and judged that there are four wires in the head beam. In addition, the left and right metal shafts of the head beam are also conducting.
Through 52audio’s actual measurement, the overall weight of the head beam structure is about 62.6g.
The overall weight of the two earmuffs is about 49.8g.
The weight of the right ear shell is about 145.6g.
The weight of the left ear shell is about 127.7g.
The overall weight of the two ear shells is about 273.4g.
Apple AirPods Max weighs approximately 385.6g.
The overall weight of the headset case is about 520.6g.
The appearance of Apple AirPods Max is disassembled at a glance. The head beam, earmuffs, and ear shells are all modular in design and can be easily disassembled.
02/ Apple AirPods Max headphones teardown
After reading the unpacking part, we have understood the appearance of this product in detail, and roughly understood the internal structure location. Next, enter the dismantling part. The internal workmanship of this product still shows Apple’s advanced level, full of materials, complex and orderly structure, regular arrangement, and high energy throughout. Friends who like dismantling can feast their eyes.
Into the disassembly part, first remove the screws on the two ear shell sound chamber covers.
Cover fixing screws, there are fixed sealing rings on the screws.
Open the cover, there is a flat cable connected to the motherboard, there is a microphone inside the earmuffs.
The cable is fixed by a metal pressing plate and screws.
Remove the screws and remove the metal plate.
There are two square cushions on the back of the metal plate, and the cushions have circular openings.
The inner structure of the cover.
The four legs of the cover plate are fixed with magnets for magnetically attracting earmuffs.
Fixed screw plastic female seat. The eccentric female seat can be rotated back and forth by 90 degrees with the screw and the clamping position. When the protruding position is turned to the position shown in the figure below, the cover can be fixed, and vice versa. Ingenious design!
As shown in the figure, when the protruding position is turned to this position, the cover can be fixed.
Dust-proof mesh cloth for the sound hole inside the cover.
The microphone unit cable is routed around the hole.
Laser carving H228 036 GWM1 MEMS microphone.
The earphone cover on the other side also has a cable connection.
The metal plate is relatively small, but it is also equipped with cushions.
The outside of the metal plate.
Disassemble the front of the sound chamber cover. The place with heavier color is the microphone, and it is difficult to find when the cover is fixed on the ear shell.
Inside the sound cavity cover.
There is a rubber plug inside the pin hole of the detachable head beam to be fixed by a metal plate to prevent foreign objects from entering the headphone.
A three-pronged crack in the middle of the rubber stopper.
An optical sensor unit is fixed on the side of the sound cavity cover, and is connected to the main board through a flat cable.
Optical sensor fixing structure.
The optical sensor and the microphone unit are distributed on a line.
The optical sensor opens the window.
The optical sensor detection element is very similar to that on a mobile phone.
Foam sealant is also arranged at the junction of the cover plate and the cavity.
The internal structure of the left ear cavity, the middle position is the dynamic driver designed by Apple.
The internal structure of the head beam and ear shell suspension system.
The location structure of the noise reduction microphone is connected to the main board through a flat cable.
This part at the bottom of the left ear is occupied by a huge bluetooth antenna module.
The left ear main board unit components are covered by a larger rectangular metal shield.
The wires connecting the left and right earphones are shielded by copper foil and wrapped with a transparent tube, and a black rubber tube is added to the outer layer of the fixed position of the cable harness to enhance protection. This section of wire is used to connect the left and right earphones to transmit data and power through the internal cables of the head beam.
The internal structure of the right earphone cavity.
The internal structure of the right earphone suspension system is the same as that of the left headphone.
The battery unit in the right headphone.
Two batteries are fixed on the left and right sides of the right earphone respectively, and the battery wires are routed along the edge of the cavity and fixed by a metal wire harness.
Battery unit on the other side. Using a multimeter to measure the output terminal voltage of the battery is about 4V, you can judge that the two batteries are connected in parallel.
The internal structure of the noise reduction mode switch button.
The internal structure of the digital crown.
Compare the internal structure of the left and right earphone shells as a whole. The left earphone main board is on the left side of the cavity, and the right earphone main board is on the bottom of the cavity. The two battery units are both located in the right earphone cavity, respectively placed on the left and right sides of the speaker unit.
Compared with the structure of the top of the ear shell, there are two physical button structures missing in the left cavity.
The internal structure of the left side of the two earphone shells is compared, the left earphone is the main board unit, and the right earphone is the battery unit.
Comparison of the bottom structure of the two earphone shells. The left ear is equipped with an antenna unit structure; the right ear is a motherboard unit.
Comparison of the right side of the two earphone shells. No components are placed on the left earphone, and the right earphone is the battery unit.
The front of the dynamic driver designed by Apple.
The back of the dynamic driver.
The speaker unit is connected to the metal dome of the motherboard.
The tuning hole in the middle of the speaker T iron is covered by a dust-proof net.
There are three tuning holes around the speaker, which are covered by a dust-proof net.
According to 52audio’s actual measurement, the speaker size is about 40mm.
The front of the antenna structure in the left earphone is connected to the main board through a coaxial cable.
The back of the bluetooth antenna structure.
The top of the bluetooth antenna structure is arranged by a square conductive cloth.
Uncover the conductive cloth, you can see the bluetooth antenna below.
The bluetooth antenna is connected with the injection molded strip hole of the shell to reduce the influence of the metal shell on the signal.
Disassembly of the headphone suspension system.
The suspension system is connected to the main board through a wire socket, so that the left and right ears communicate with each other.
The front of the suspension system.
The top of the suspension system.
The back of the suspension system.
At the bottom of the suspension system, two spring structures are used to open and close the fixed head beam and give the earmuffs a resilient force for downward rotation.
The side of the suspension system is fixed by hexagonal screws, and the ball bearing is underneath.
The other side is also fixed with hexagonal screws, and the slewing bearing is mounted on the ball bearing.
Wear the position sensor and fix it with a metal cover and screws.
Remove the sensor unit, you can see two circular magnet structures at the opening of the window, the spring is compressed, the two are close, and the spring is stretched and the two are separated.
The Hall element on the wearing position sensor is used to detect the corresponding position of the circular magnet in the figure above to detect the wearing state.
The wires connected to the motherboard are soldered and reinforced with glue.
Through the hole, you can see the pin structure for connecting the head beam.
The front of the Lightning power input interface unit structure, the interface is fixed by a metal plate and screws, and the cable is connected to the motherboard through a connector.
The back of the Lightning power input interface unit structure has a metal fixed frame.
Lightning interface female socket.
The battery unit is disassembled, the battery is fixed in a plastic frame, and the back is protected by a sponge cushion.
Plastic frame structure of battery cell.
Battery cushion sponge pad.
Lithium-ion battery model A2165, charging limit voltage 4.35Vdc, rated capacity: 664mAh, manufacturer: Sunwoda Electronic Co., Ltd..
The battery is equipped with a circuit protection board.
The second battery.
Silk-screened QR code information is printed on the battery.
It is also equipped with a circuit protection board, and the wire is welded with glue.
Coming to the main board part, the components on the front of the main board of the right ear are provided with a cushioning plastic frame where they are connected to the cavity.
Components on the back of the motherboard. There are multiple connector sockets, and the sockets are protected by foam.
Remove the plastic frame.
Socket connected to the suspension system wire.
The metal metal piece connected with the metal dome of the speaker unit.
Three LED indicators of different colors are used for charging instructions.
The Hall element of the silk screen J6 is located on the edge of the motherboard to facilitate the detection of the magnetic field, so that the headset enters an ultra-low power consumption standby state.
The IC of silk screen A.
The IC of silk screen S9AJ.
Six-pin IC with silk screen 6K.
Silkscreen 02CI IC.
DIODES PI3USB102E, USB2.0 data switch.
The IC of the silk screen WA9.
Two silk-screened 07NHC ICs.
Silk-screen 0FD IC.
NXP silkscreen 610A38 IC, used for Lightning interface connection.
DIODES PI3USB102E, USB2.0 data switch.
The IC of silk screen 058DEN.
Two TI TLV3691 ultra-low power comparators.
The IC of the silk screen V29CD.
TI TLV341 supports a shutdown CMOS rail-to-rail single op amp.
Three silk-screened 2Z ICs.
TI TPS62743 synchronous rectification step-down converter, output current 300mA.
IC of AAAF KTW627.
Apple customized 338S00517-B1 PMIC.
Two silk-screened AANI ICs.
Silkscreen 080CNN IC.
Silk screen 2DPI IC.
The IC of silk screen 02.
Silk screen XW H7 IC.
TI SN2501A1 IC.
IC with silkscreen 8409.
The IC of silk screen 05R.
TI SN74AVC4T774RSVR has a 4-bit dual-power bus transceiver with configurable voltage level conversion and three-state output, supports independent direction control input, and is used for chip communication with different operating voltages.
ST STM32L496QG ultra-low power consumption, with 80 MHz FPU Arm Cortex-M4 MCU. It is an ultra-low power microcontroller based on a high-performance ARM®Cortex®-M432-bit RISC core, and its operating frequency is up to 80 MHz. The Cortex-M4 core has a floating-point unit (FPU) single-precision, which supports all ARM single-precision data processing instructions and data types. It also implements a full set of DSP instructions and a memory protection unit (MPU), thereby enhancing the security of the application.
STM32L496xx devices embed high-speed memory (up to 1 MB of flash memory, 320 KB of SRAM), flexible external memory controller (FSMC) for static memory (for devices with 100 pins and more packages), and a Quad SPI Flash memory interface (available in all packages) and a wide range of enhanced I/O and peripherals connected to two APB buses, two AHB buses and a 32-bit multi-AHB bus matrix.
TI TMUX136 2-channel analog switch.
Silk screen 2000ZE IC.
Two ICs with silk screen 06KU6N.
Cirrus Logic 46L10A0, customized model.
Cirrus Logic silk screen 44L22 audio amplifier IC, used to drive the headphone unit.
Winbond W25Q256JW has a 256M-bit serial flash memory with a unified 4KB sector and dual/quad SPI.
Apple’s self-developed Apple H1 chip with silkscreen 343500404 has 10 audio cores and provides powerful computing power for various functions of the headset.
On the front of the left earphone motherboard, the middle area is covered by a large shielding cover.
A buffer frame is also provided at the junction of the back of the main board and the cavity.
Remove the buffer frame. Many ICs on the two motherboards of the left and right headphones are of the same model.
Apple customized 338S00517-B1 PMIC in the left headphone.
TI TPS62743 synchronous rectification step-down converter, output current 300mA.
Silk screen I2B IC.
Socket connected to the suspension system wire.
Cirrus Logic 44L22 audio amplifier IC, used to drive the headphone unit.
Screen printing UI IC.
The Hall element of silk screen J6F. It is also located on the edge of the motherboard and is used to detect magnetic fields and make the headset enter an ultra-low power standby state.
Silk-screen YYAEK IC.
Remove the shielding tape on the shielding cover.
The IC of silk screen BWJ34.
The NXP 610A38 IC on the left earphone motherboard is used for Lightning interface connection.
Two ICs with silk screen 04EU6N.
Winbond W25Q256JW has a 256M-bit serial flash memory with a unified 4KB sector and dual/quad SPI.
ST STM32L496QG ultra-low power consumption, with 80 MHz FPU Arm Cortex-M4 MCU. The same specifications as those on the right ear motherboard.
Silk screen 2000ZE IC.
The IC of the silk screen WA9.
343S00404 on the motherboard of the left earphone, Apple’s self-developed Apple H1 main control chip. The two H1 chips work together to make the headphone functions perfectly.
The front contrast of the motherboard in the left and right headphones.
Comparison of the back of the motherboard in the left and right headphones.
Remove the speaker and main board, the internal structure of the left headphone cavity, the plastic fixing bracket inside the headphone is fixed in the aluminum shell with glue.
The internal structure of the pressure relief hole is a bass reversing hole unit.
The inverted hole structure is sealed with double-sided tape to prevent air from flowing.
Bass reversal hole structure.
Bass port.
The bass phase inversion hole connected with the pressure relief hole on the shell.
Two microphone units are placed inside the long strip microphone opening on the top of the left earphone, which are fixed on the cavity wall by a metal plate.
The internal structure of the microphone unit on the other side of the top.
The internal structure of the microphone unit at the bottom of the left headphone.
The MEMS microphone of LaserDiao H228 041 GWM1 has the same specifications as the noise reduction microphone on the sound cavity cover.
The remaining component structure inside the right headphone cavity, the black frame glue inside the earphone is fixed inside the shell.
The internal structure of the digital crown button.
The internal structure of the noise reduction mode switch button.
The bass inverter tube structure in the right headphone is fixed with screws on both sides.
The microphone unit on the top of the right headphone.
There is another microphone unit on the top of the right headphone.
The third microphone unit at the bottom of the right earphone. A total of 9 microphones are equipped in the earphones on both sides, using the same specification.
All components of Apple AirPods Max noise reduction headphones.
03/ Summary
From the disassembly of 52audio, it can be seen that Apple’s AirPods Max headphones have broken through the current mainstream flagship product design in appearance. The head beam frame uses a stainless steel frame with a new design of tight fabric canopy to reduce head pressure. , And has strong air permeability; the stainless steel frame has both strength and elasticity, and is wrapped with soft materials to improve the touch; the earmuffs are fixed by magnetic attraction, wrapped in a special mesh fabric on the outer layer, and filled with memory cotton inside. Due to the addition of metal materials such as the fuselage and internal suspension structure, this product can feel significant weight when worn.
In the appearance structure, a telescopic sleeve rod is used with a suspension system to adjust the length of the head beam and rotate left and right and down. The telescopic rod has a strong sense of damping and can be fixed in any position. The suspension system structure is a big highlight of this product. It not only has the basic rotating structure, but also has the communication of left and right earphones without wires, and is equipped with the wearing position sensor unit to realize the wearing state detection; the convenient structure of the head beam can be disassembled with a pin, which greatly improves the product Assembly flexibility.
Apple’s AirPods Max headsets are full of materials in the internal structure, the structure is complex and orderly, and the arrangement is regular. Because there is only a single cavity inside, a large area in the middle is occupied by the speaker unit, and the rest of the components are distributed around; the components are connected by connectors, reducing manual participation and improving the convenience of assembly; the dynamic driver independently designed by Apple The size is about 40mm. It is connected to the motherboard through a metal dome, and is equipped with a bass inverting hole structure to enhance the low frequency volume.
The battery unit adopts the current two-division solution that effectively utilizes the internal space of the product and increases the battery capacity. However, the two batteries are located in the right earphone and are distributed on the left and right sides of the speaker unit, which also makes the left and right earphones different in weight; The two headphones are equipped with a total of 9 microphone units, two are located inside the sound cavity cover to collect the internal noise of the ear canal, and the remaining seven are distributed on the cavity wall for noise reduction and call functions. This is also the current 52audio Among the many disassembled headphones, the one with the largest number of microphones.
It can be seen that the shape of the motherboard in the left and right ears of the Apple AirPods Max headset adapts to the needs of the cavity, and the two arc-shaped motherboard units are relatively small. The main boards on both sides have the same main configuration, and the left earphone main board is protected by a larger shielding cover due to the presence of the antenna. An Apple H1 main control chip is used on the left and right motherboards to provide powerful computing power support for the perfect operation of various functions of the headset; and it is also equipped with ST STM32L496QG ultra-low power single-chip microcomputer to control the whole machine.
At the same time, Apple customized the 338S00517-B1 power management IC to provide protection for battery charging and discharging; Cirrus Logic 44L22 audio amplifier IC used to drive the headphone unit; other aspects also used many TI components, including TLV3691 ultra-low power comparator, TLV341 CMOS rail-to-rail single op amp, TPS62743 synchronous rectification step-down converter, SN74AVC4T774RSVR transceiver, TMUX136 2-channel analog switch, etc.
Compared with traditional headsets, Apple AirPods Max headset have made great innovations and breakthroughs in terms of appearance design and internal structure design. The detachable metal link headset structure and left and right headsets use Apple H1 independent The main control chip, a total of 9 microphone units in the two headphones, etc., many features make this headset an innovator in the industry.
Source: 52audio
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