52Audio has published their Sony WF-C500 teardown and with this model being a lower end device, there are some differences versus the other WF headsets from previous years. I will try to point some out, if anyone catches any others I missed, please leave them in the comments.
First looking at the exterior, there appears to be some extra plastic (yellow circle) on the edge of the earbuds in the teardown. I am not sure if this is an isolated incident or if the build quality is generally like this for the WF-C500 and other Sony devices made in Vietnam. The factory is an OEM company, and not a plant directly owned by Sony, so perhaps quality control is not as high as in Malaysia.
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| Source: 52audio.com |
An interesting design feature is the hole for the microphone, which has been designed to minimize wind noise. For anyone who owns a pair, how is the wind noise versus other Sony earbuds and other brands? Does the new design work? I wonder if we will see something similar on the WF-L900 once it releases and other future WF headsets.
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| Source: 52audio.com |
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| Source: 52audio.com |
Anyways, the battery is a Li-ion 621733 type. The numbers represent the dimensions, 6.2mm x 17mm x 33mm. The capacity is 300mAh/1.11Wh, rated at 3.7V. Googling for this battery type does show different battery capacities, with some even offering more than 300mAh, but these are on alibaba or aliexpress and I would bet that some of these larger capacity batteries are fake. But assuming you could get your hands on an authentic 621733 type in larger capacity, say 350 or 400mAh, then swapping it in should give you more recharges. But I am not sure if the battery protection board would have to be swapped over, or the one attached to the new battery would suffice. The only downside would be longer time to recharge the bigger battery.
Btw is anyone able to explain to me why a 300mAh internal battery is only able to provide 1 recharge for 2 earbuds with 70mAh batteries (total of 140mAh)? If the case was 100%, charged and you recharged completely discharged earbuds, would they use more than 140mAh to recharge them once? Is the recharge from the case battery not 1:1 to the earbud batteries? Are there losses, like from heat? If anyone can explain or link a video, that would be great.
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| Source: 52audio.com |
Now onto the headsets, first looking at the top part with the button, we can see the antenna below the plastic button. The antenna does not appear to be printed onto the plastic like the WF-1000XM4 but instead looks like a ribbon cable antenna. I would imagine this is for cost savings, but if something would break, replacement would be much simpler here.
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| Source: 52audio.com |
The PCB on the topside has the antenna connection and the tactile button. On the bottom left we can see the connection to the driver. The board looks to be held down by 1 philips head screw.
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| Source: 52audio.com |
The top of the board has the main Bluetooth SoC, microphone for calls and the charging pins. The amount of components is comparable to the WF-XB700 but a lot less than say the WF-SP800N or even WF-H800. One thing I will point out, even though the model name for certifications is YY2952, the board still has the old HDX-2952 moniker, meaning internally Sony probably still uses HDX.
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| Source: 52audio.com |
The driver is 5.8mm, as specified on the product specification page and also when 52Audio measured it. I understand this is a lower end device, but I feel Sony could have used a larger driver. One issue I noticed is that the driver is glued in or covered in some kind of epoxy to keep it in, so replacing it would require more effort. Likewise the wire connections look a bit fragile, so if you are taking it apart, be careful as not to rip them.
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| Source: 52audio.com |
Looking at the internal battery, we have a soft cell pack rather than a coin cell like in previous models. The capacity is 0.27Wh at 3.85V, which is about 70mAh. I am wondering if the plastic holder was not present or modified, if a CP1454 sized battery would fit. It would provide more battery life, 85mAh, but again not sure how the fit would be.
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| Source: 52audio.com |
Finally turning to the Bluetooth SoC. The WF-C500 uses the Airoha AB1562M with a production date of week 19 2021, or May 2021. The WF-XB700 also used an Airoha chip, the AB1552, but this new chip offers a few improvements and benefits over the one in the WF-XB700.
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| Source: 52audio.com |
The first major change is that the new AB1562 supports Bluetooth 5.2 which could end up being upgraded to LE audio in the future once the specifications are finalized. The SoC also features "New generation echo cancellation and noise reduction schemes improved audio quality of the voice calls". The WF-C500 has no NC, but perhaps the SoC also helps reduce environmental noise from calls.
The DSP is a Cadence HiFi Mini®Audio Engine with a maximum frequency of 208Mhz. The flash memory is now 32MB, negating the need for a dedicated flash chip on the board. While the SoC does support noise cancellation, the AB1562M version does not.
Compared to the AB1552, I think they are comparable with regards to audio performance and even NC, but I suspect the AB1562 could be built in a newer manufacturing process and should be more efficient. For those interesting, specs for the AB1552 are here and the AB1562 here.
It will be interesting to see how the upcoming WF-L900 will be built and if it will have more components or less in order to save on costs and battery consumption. Even the WF-1000XM4 uses one main PCB, so I would imagine we will see the same on the L900.
If anyone finds anything else interesting in the teardown, leave it in the comments.
Amazing how far we came in such a short time
ReplyDeletethey're not rubber seal but can get IPX4. So suspicious.
ReplyDeleteYup forgot to mention that, there does appear to be a thin rubber seam on the seam, although it could also be just normal glue. There is also no rubber gasket around the charging pins and water could get in there.
DeleteOf course IPX4 is only protected against splashing of water, so splashproof but I would still be careful with these around any rain. Sony's websites mentions this:
"Protection assured against water splashing from any angle, excluding the sound tube (sound outlet) of the headphones. The charging case is not water resistant."
Maybe the glue on the seal protects it enough?
Could the battery be replaced similiar to the wf-1000xm3? Where could you find a soft cell pack battery?
ReplyDeleteYes I was thinking of this as well for my upcoming wf-c500 review. The only place I can think of is aliexpress or alibabba. But I do wonder if a cell coin battery would work as well since it would just fit into the plastic holder.
DeleteMy wfc-500 left side have battery issues. How get buy a battery or which battery is suitable.
ReplyDeleteHello, have you tried reset to factory settings to see if it fixes it?
DeleteAlso not sure the wf-c500 battery can be bought, the closest would be the battery from the wf-1000xm4, see this aliexpress post
https://www.aliexpress.com/item/1005005044543722.html?spm=a2g0o.productlist.0.0.16017dd2jjJFUd&algo_pvid=4ef61d89-cc08-43a7-9cfc-de4727da683d&algo_exp_id=4ef61d89-cc08-43a7-9cfc-de4727da683d-0&pdp_ext_f=%7B%22sku_id%22%3A%2212000031435316278%22%7D&pdp_npi=2%40dis%21CAD%2123.97%2115.58%21%21%21%21%21%40210318c916726213906981529eb6a1%2112000031435316278%21sea&curPageLogUid=3niqz3uFZRRD
Hello Buddy. Please could you tell me how do you open the buds ? Did you open it with a special tools or something like that ? I need to repair my left side bud :(
ReplyDeleteyou have to heat them up a bit to soften the glue between the 2 halves. ideally a heat gun, but can also use a hairdryer. Then using a plastic spudger between the seams, open the earbuds.
DeleteHello. I have these exact headphones and the left one is broken in half (as in the plastic casing of the left side is loose). How can I repair this? Is there some kind of adhesive I can use? It works fine the plastic casing half with the button just needs to be reattached to the half with the motherboard and earbud.
ReplyDeletebest would be some kind of glue that is strong and flexible. see my wf-1000xm4 battery replacement post for the types of glue.
Deletehttps://thewalkmanblog.blogspot.com/2022/12/how-to-replace-battery-on-sony-wf.html
Great writeup! Very thorough!
ReplyDeleteWhat temperature do you usually set the heat gun at to open the buds and not damage other components?
Thanks!
I didn't do the teardown, that is pretty obvious from the first sentence in the article. So no I don't know the setting of the heatgun.
Deletehey man, just put my c500 into the washing machine LOLLL, is there any way to repair?, buds is working, but case died, i dissassemble the case, theres some kind of white spots around the pcb, is there anyway to fix?
ReplyDeletewhat part of the pcb are the spots? can you post a photo on here or reddit?
DeleteAnyone here knows if there is anywhere i can get the 5.8 driver from????
ReplyDeleteHello Brother just few days ago my Wf c500 fell into water with both case and buds ..after that it's stop charging but it easily connect with my mobile..when I input the type c cable the case indicator blink for about 15 second and both the buds blink for twice ..is it a battery fault or the pcb got damaged
ReplyDeleteForm where I can buy Sony Wf C500 earbuds battery.
ReplyDeleteYour best bet is ebay. Thing is, the wf-c500 battery seems to have contacts attached to it already, so a normal coin cell from another brand might need to have contacts soldered to it.
DeleteHello! The magnet inside one of the two earbuds is clearly weaker than the other, and so it doesn't charge properly (the light blinks when inside the charger or it doesn't do anything at all). Also sometimes it just doesn't turn on by holding the button. This issue came by with time, not sure how, any idea on how to fix it?
ReplyDelete