Sony YY2977 and YY2980 appear on Bluetooth SIG, are these the Playstation Earbuds? (Update 3)

Back in May Sony teased their upcoming PlayStation wireless earbuds, and since then things have been a bit quiet. But the earbuds may have just passed through Bluetooth SIG, at least that is my assumption. First up the Bluetooth certification.

We have two devices, a wireless headset (YY2977) and a USB Transceiver (YY2980), both are certified for Bluetooth 5.3. It would make sense a USB dongle would be required, since the PlayStation 5 does not have native Bluetooth support. Both devices support Isochronous Adaptation Layer, so there is LE Audio support.

The strange thing is that the combined designs are very different on both. The YY2977 has 189450 and 199713, where as the YY2980 has 182912 and 194027, which are the same as the WF-1000XM5 and the upcoming unknown gaming headset. Since we know one set of the combined designs, let us look at the other 2 from the YY2977.

The 189450 is described as a Bluetooth LE Controller with the model number LE-A-C001. The 199713 is described as LE single mode Host/Profile with a model name LE-A-U001. Of course these do not reveal much, and neither are used in any other devices. So perhaps this is some kind of custom System in Package setup utilizing the MT2833.

But then are these 2 devices even related? Thankfully we have an IMDA certification which answers that question for us.

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We can see the YY2977 and YY2980 are grouped together. What is also interesting is the product description, Wireless Noise Canceling Gaming Headset. This means, assuming these are the PlayStation earbuds, then they will also come with noise cancellation. I do not recall Sony mentioning any NC on these back in May.

Digging further, I found the headset, but not the USB transceiver in an import/export filing

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Since the USB transceiver usually ships as part of the package, perhaps this is why it is not mentioned here. Regardless, it looks like we have 2 colour options, black (BZ) and white (WZ). Sony has the PS5 controller in black and white, so it would make sense for the earbuds to also offer such options. What also jumps out at me, is the colour codes, BZ and WZ are usually used for retail devices.

From another import site, checking TNP-SONTM05 from the first import/export site, yields a list of random parts for wireless earbuds, like flexible headphones circuit, antenna board, and headphone circuit. This would suggest Sony is either making some prototypes for further testing or pre-production units.

Some of the companies listed are Cresyn Electronics which is an OEM Sony uses and Inorsen Industries which manufacturers PCBs. Unfortunately I do not have any date information for these listings, so no idea how old or new they could be. But I suspect they are recent. From the data, the PlayStation earbuds may be manufactured in Vietnam,

That is all the information I have at the moment, so now we wait for the FCC filing.

Update #3 - August 7th

As with the YY2976, the Mexican certification site has revealed the Bluetooth chip of the YY2977. Yet again the information contradicts my assumption that this headset is using the Mediatek MT2833. We can see from the certification that this is some custom chip from Sony Semiconductor Solutions, CXD3277GG.

The CXD3277GG could end up being some custom chip which uses the Mediatek M2833, but we may not know this until we see a teardown, if we see one at all. If this is a custom design/setup, I would think Sony would need to get it certified for the US market via the FCC.

Hmm I wonder what chips Sony used for their other over the hear PS5 headset, would have to look into it.

Update #2 - July 27th

These new NC wireless gaming earbuds have appeared on the FCC and of course Sony is not making it easy, they are learning with their filings to omit as much as they can. For example the antenna document now has no photos of the antenna, instead Sony has added a "see this file for antenna photo". The antenna will the LDS type, meaning it will be printing on the plastic, similar what Sony has been using for all their earbuds.

So what can we learn from the filing, well the internal battery is 3.85V like Sony's other recent earbuds, they will be supporting LE Audio. The model tested was a production unit, so it looks like these may already be in production.

The label document shows only a square box where the label will be printed. This does not show the actual design, it is a place holder for the real case.

The short term confidentiality ends on October 12th, 2023, so perhaps we could see this at IFA 2023? or maybe at some stand alone event from PlayStation.

As for the USB transceiver, we do have some information, such as the software for the Bluetooth.

I know I mentioned above that the SoC is the same as the Sony WF-1000XM5, which is the Mediatek MT2833, but that is just a variant of the Airoha AB1588, which itself is probably similar to the AB1565/68 line, so the software could be used either SoCs. The antenna on the USB transceiver is a PCB antenna, the same as the USB transceiver for the current line of InZone products.

Both devices showed up on Monday on the FCC, but with the WF-1000XM5 announcement, I opted to wait before posting this.

Update #1 - July 17th

Both devices have appeared on TDRA, which is the certification body in UAE.